Next
by Amael the Chosen
Summary: After an attack, the Yondaime's seal is unintentionally altered. Naruto can now see the future, but only 2 minutes ahead, and only when it directly concerns him. How will things progress, with this one small change? Crossover with the film "Next".
1. Prologue

/ In no way do I own "Naruto", the story or concept of "Next", nor any other character herein except those of my own devising that may or may not feature. "Naruto" is the property of Misashi Kishimoto, and "Next" is that of the companies listed here: /title/tt0435705/companycredits - IMDB

* * *

**Prologue**

Uzumaki Naruto ran through the darkened alleyways of Konoha, closely followed by three villagers brandishing knives. The young boy was only six.

Naruto panicked more as they gained on him. He had tried hiding like Iruka-sensei had taught him, but the angered villagers found him again within mere moments, forcing him to flee again. He hadn't ran so far or fast in his life, but still they were getting closer and closer with every passing minute. He took a left, a right, another right, and slammed his shoulder into the sharp edge of a wall as he took another corner too quickly. He stumbled, and fell into a metal bin before regaining his footing and pushing himself harder to make up for the lost seconds.

He suddenly felt a cold numbness spread throughout his right shoulder, and his eyes widened as he fell to the ground, face-first. His shoulder started to burn in pain, and he scuffed his chin against the hard pavement. He screwed his eyes up in pain at the double wounding, and the tears that had threatened to fall since the beginning of the chase finally began. They wouldn't help, he knew, but he couldn't stop them. The pain in his shoulder intensified, and he felt an odd pulling sensation as the knife that had been thrown by one of his three pursuers was twisted and slid from his skin. Warmth spread down his arm as his blood poured freely from the wound.

Two of the villagers grabbed him under his arms, and hoisted him upright. The third grasped his knife tightly, and nodded once. The two holding Naruto pinned him against a wooden fence, his feet a clear foot above the floor. Each grasped their knives in their free hands, and held his hands above his head before driving the sharp implements through his palms, effectively nailing the young child to the wall.

Naruto whimpered in pain, and yelled as the villagers let go, leaving his full body weight to pull terribly upon the blades. He felt the skin of his hands rip, the muscles pull, twist and tear, and bit his lip as more tears fell from his eyes.

"The Demon of Konoha… May you rest in hell for what you did…" Muttered the third villager, toying with his bloodied knife, before driving it into Naruto's stomach, up to the hilt.

Naruto's eyes flew open wide, goggling at the pain. Blood fell from his mouth as it jerked open in a silent scream, and his lower lip was finally freed from between his teeth. The three villagers made themselves scarce, and Naruto was left hanging til late morning. He was found surrounded by a pool of his own blood five feet across, still wet, all three knives still pinning him to the wooden fence, and his eyes still pouring with tears. The ANBU who located him was shocked to see him still alive, and stood dumbly staring at the scene until Naruto managed to mumble a simple "please…" before un-pinning him and rushing him to the hospital.

* * *

Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, stood by the window of the hospital room and held his pipe in his mouth. He had already cracked it between his teeth once after hearing of Naruto's fate, and after hearing about the fearsome gut wound had immediately travelled to the hospital to make sure nothing untoward had happened to the Yondaime's seal. His worst fears were confirmed when, unlike the wounds in his hands, or the countless wounds Naruto had suffered previously, the wound on his stomach had left a ragged scar. Sarutobi prayed everything was okay with the young boy, but only when Naruto awoke would any damage become clear.

* * *

Naruto had healed well, his internal organs unaffected by the knife wound. The only reminder of what had happened other than the scene of the attack (which was being cleaned) was the scar that broached two lines of the seal on Naruto's stomach.

Naruto trudged wearily through the centre of Konoha towards his home. The scar on his stomach itched constantly, which grated on his nerves. He was tired, cold, and hungry after having bled enough for three bodies, constantly being healed by the power of the Kyuubi no Yoko contained within him.

He froze, his eyes going wide as he was hit in the back of the head by a large stone, and fell to the ground.

Naruto jumped, falling onto his behind. He grabbed the back of his head, feeling no wound or lump, and glanced around him for a stone. There was none. The villagers around him ignored this strange behaviour, and carried on their ways. Naruto was shocked. He had FELT, he had SEEN a large rock hit him in the back of the head, and he had fallen to the ground face-first, not landed on his backside. What was that?

Naruto stood unsteadily, walked five steps, and was hit in the back of the head by a stone. His eyes went wide, and he fell to the ground in a dead faint.

Naruto yelled. He was still sat on the floor, staring wild-eyed at his own body lying just five steps away from him. What really confused him was how villagers simply stepped through the body, but over it as well, their feet in two or even three places at once. He saw it happen twice more before his 'next self' shifted its head to the left, and the stone sailed past 'his' right ear. He carried on walking, and disappeared around a corner.

Naruto was confused. He didn't know what was going on, and the villagers were starting to sneer at him. He rose unsteadily, and walked forward. He shifted his head to the left, and watched in abject fear as the stone whistled past his head over his right shoulder. He swung his head around quickly, and saw a villager wearing a look of surprise at his dodge. The villager sneered, and ran, leaving Naruto wondering precisely what was going on.

This happened another twelve times on the way home. Each time, he saw what happened, what he did, and escaped unscathed from each attempt at annoying or injuring him. He couldn't understand it. He entered his home, and fell to his bed without a glance back. Maybe sleeping would help him solve the problem?

* * *

Deep inside the Yondaime's seal, Kyuubi no Yoko paced restlessly behind his bars, before displaying his sharpened fangs and chuckling ominously.


	2. Chapter 1: The Beginning

**Present Day: Six years later **

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto woke, sat up and stretched. Yawning, he swung his legs from his bed and rose unsteadily. His ruffled t-shirt and pant-legs succumbed to gravity, falling to their correct places on his body, as he ran his hand through his hair and wandered to his kitchen.

He ignored the sight of himself taking a slurp on a carton of milk and vomiting violently at the now-soured liquid, and the other self that dared to buy a fresh carton from the vendor along the street that was even now being charged almost three times as much for much the same spoiled produce.

He sighed to himself, and pulled a glass from a cupboard and filled it with water. He slipped a slice of bread in the toaster, and set it to work. Breakfast times had changed in recent years, consisting of something other than Ramen. He had quickly found that, while he was not liked by the denizens of Konoha, that he could get things from them with little persuasion or effort, as long as he was careful. He now managed to place a rock in exactly the right place for a vendor's cart to bump over and drop bread to the exactly placed newspaper (that was now about three months old) instead of the roadside, for Naruto to collect before anyone spotted it. He could get various fruits, vegetables and meats by much the same tactic, and never had anyone spotted it.

He turned a moment before the toaster popped, nabbing the slightly-crisped slice of bread absent-mindedly and taking a sip on his water before popping the corner of the toast into his mouth and biting down. He crunched away until the bread was gone, showered, changed, and left for the Ninja Academy.

* * *

He had long ago figured out that he couldn't avoid everything. He also knew he couldn't see anything or anyone but his own fates. He had learned quickly that as much as the villagers hated him, they hated it when he avoided EVERYTHING they threw at him, so he had to take a few of the less-dangerous hits to his body while walking around. He knew also that as much as he wanted to be accepted, excelling at the academy tests because he knew how to cheat was wrong, and so had ignored every single one of his 'futures' and roughed it out, unless it was potentially life-threatening.

Naruto wandered into the classroom ran by Iruka and Mizuki with plenty of time left before the start. Barely anyone else was there, just Hinata, Shino and Shikamaru. Hinata was reading some of her notes, her cheeks tinged pink, Shino could well have been asleep whilst sitting up, and Shikamaru just -was- asleep, his head in his arms. Naruto waved a greeting, mumbling a 'good morning' that was echoed by Hinata, and earned a nod from Shino. Naruto sat in his usual seat, in the second row, and waited. Sure enough, two minutes ahead of his future-self punching Sasuke in the face the moment the dark-haired boy entered the room, he did. Naruto sighed to himself, his head held in a cupped hand. He lowered his eyes and shrugged. No matter what he tried, it was always two minutes. For those few minutes before class, he entertained himself no-end with image after image of abusing the stuck-up 'genius' of Konoha, although the closer and more impending Sasuke's entrance, the more and more he saw of various repercussions and rather violent revenges.

He didn't mind though. It was worth it, after all, if only to see the priceless look on Sasuke's face when 'Hinata' grabbed his testicles, yelled at him for destroying her faith in mankind, and crushed his testicles. Of course, once Hinata came around from the shock of seeing Naruto turn into her via a Henge, she would without fail attack him for using her in such a way.

Naruto shook off the mental image, a wry grin on his face as he 'hn'ed a greeting to Sasuke, who replied in kind before settling in to brood.

The rest of the class filtered in, the general silence only being broken by quiet talking and the arrival of Ino and Sakura, who fought to get through the door.

Naruto froze a minute into Sakura's rant about why he should move seats, before he rose from his chair and went to the back of the room. Sakura was so shocked he had actually listened to him, she stood watching him until Iruka and Mizuki entered the room with cheery "Ohayo"s.

"Today is the day of your Genin exam, everyone. Mizuki and I will head into the test-room, and call you in one-by-one in alphabetical order. Once that is done, you will either be given your hitai-ite, or you will be told you have failed. Each test is different, so warnings are going to be ineffective." Iruka warned, looking pointedly at each of his students in turn. He nodded to Mizuki, and they left the room. A moment later, Mizuki yelled "Aburame Shino!". The silent boy stood and left without a word.

* * *

This continued until only Naruto, Ino and a couple of other students remained. Naruto was sweating, and although Ino and the others put this down to nervousness, in reality it was because Naruto was terrified. Sasuke had gone before Naruto, and Naruto could now, only halfway through the Uchiha's test, see what was going to happen.

He practically waded through over three hundred failed attempts at his test, almost crying as he became more and more desperate. Each attempt had failed at a crucial moment. The Bunshin.

Naruto could see two minutes into the future where it concerned himself. He knew that occasionally, he had to "take a hit" to avoid much more unpleasant surprises. He knew sometimes he was too slow, and had to deal with the consequences of an attack without being able to avoid it.

He still had terrible control over his chakra, and still couldn't perform a Bunshin.

* * *

Thusly, Naruto found himself on the run from almost every ninja in Konoha, jumping through the forest with the Forbidden Scroll upon his back. He had avoided most of the larger groups, and knew he had two minutes head-start on each would-be discoverer. He sat in the clearing Mizuki had selected for their meeting, opened the scroll, and began reading.

"Naruto! What are you doing?" Yelled Iruka as he came into the clearing, his eyes greeted with the sight of a beaten and worn-looking Naruto. The young boy had rips in his clothing, scratches that even now were healing before Iruka's eyes, and was rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Heh, Iruka-sensei, I learned a technique from the scroll, so now you… you have to let me be a Genin!" Naruto gased breathlessly, a huge grin breaking across his face.

Naruto's face suddenly dropped, and his eyes took on a faraway look. Iruka's mouth worked noiselessly for a moment before he realised what was happening. Naruto had charged him, slid across the floor, and kicked his legs out from under him just as a large amount of shuriken and kunai slashed through the air where he had just been standing, and struck the tree behind him. Iruka stared at Naruto, who had jumped to his feet and drew a kunai of his own. He looked where Naruto was glaring, and saw Mizuki twirling a huge Shuriken, a manic grin on his face.

"So you figured it out, huh? Too bad… Do you know-" Began Mizuki.

"I'm the Kyuubi container. Iruka doesn't hate me. You're a moron for giving me a technique to learn from the Scroll. KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!" Naruto broke in and finished with a yell, literally hundreds of clones erupting from nothing throughout the clearing. Each charged at Mizuki, and even with the dozens he scythed through, each remaining clone got at least one punch or kick to land.

A minute later, Mizuki was lying broken and bleeding on the ground. Iruka was still sat up against a tree, unharmed, and Naruto fell to his knees, a look of dejection upon his features.

* * *

Iruka honestly didn't know what to do. He didn't know when Naruto had found out about the Kyuubi, or how he had known to help Iruka evade an attack the man hadn't even detected until it was far too late. Naruto had single-handedly (not counting clones) defeated a ninja who even Iruka would have been hard-pressed by, had practically read Iruka's mind, and was now acting as though he had been told the most devastating thing in his life. Had he known Naruto's unique ability, he would have understood exactly what happened.

Naruto was in shock. He had discovered without actually being told why the villagers treat him as they did, why he was beaten and nearly killed six years beforehand, and that Iruka could have died simply by protecting him. That had never happened. He never wanted to see what he had again; a dead body that wasn't his own. His own he could deal with, as he had seen them enough over six years to know that they weren't real. Others? It was horrifying. He gave a start as, for the first time in years, he was distracted enough by his own thoughts to miss the constant echoes of his future, and was hugged tightly by Iruka.

"Thank you, Naruto…" Iruka said gently, holding Naruto to him. "You did a very brave thing, there, and I'm proud of you. I'm glad too. What do you say we let everyone know we're here, and they'll come and take care of everything?"

Naruto blinked, and every possible answer he could have given rushed through his head. Every single future had one thing in common. He opened his mouth, and agreed with the path set before him. "Yes."


	3. Chapter 2: The Instructors

**Instructor Announcement Day**

* * *

Naruto wandered into Iruka's classroom. He and 'old-man' Hokage had been rather… _insistent_ when it came to his knowledge of the Kyuubi he contained. He had, rather thankfully, spouted something about being knocked out one day during an attack by the villagers, and had overheard at some point Iruka defending him against some loudmouths. None of it was true, and Iruka had looked at him strangely for a few minutes afterwards, but had eventually put it down to a lapse in memory.

Mizuki was arrested and placed in the hands of a large scarred man Naruto had never even seen in Konoha before, then was carried to the hospital to have his numerous wounds treated.

All that was beside the point, however, as "for services to Konoha no Gakure deemed above and beyond the call of a civilian", which had rather annoyingly been placed on EVERY report about the incident and so didn't count towards his ninja mission rankings, Naruto had been promoted to Genin by Sarutobi. His new hitai-ite had been polished so many times during the night (the excitement having kept him awake) it had been buffed to a shine, instead of the rather dull, matte-effect that most ninja preferred.

When he had entered the classroom, he had given his usual greeting to Hinata and Shino, the former of which gave a small double take before stuttering the question he had dreaded. "H-How did you pass, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked up, only to see Shino cock his head to the side in silence, effectively seconding the question, and Shikamaru (who again was sleeping at the desk) deemed that moment the perfect one to awaken, blink wearily at the orange-clad boy, and ask the same as Hinata had moments before.

Naruto swallowed thickly, his mouth suddenly dry. He hadn't thought how to broach the subject. He rubbed his hand against the back of his head, and began. "W-Well, y'see… ah… Mizuki-sensei…"

* * *

Naruto pushed open the door to the classroom and walked in, giving his usual greeting to Hinata and Shino, the former of which gave a small double take before stuttering the question he had dreaded. "H-How did you pass, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked up, only to see Shino cock his head to the side in silence, effectively seconding the question, and folded his arms as he waited for Shikamaru to sit up and wipe the sleep from his eyes. Just as Shikamaru opened his mouth, however, Naruto held up a hand for silence from the spiky-haired youth.

"Mizuki-sensei stole an important scroll from the Hokage building, and tried to kill me while I was out for a walk. I kept him busy long enough for the ANBU chasing him to arrive and beat him up. They would have caught him after a few more minutes anyway…"

Hinata put a hand to her mouth, gasping at the thought of Mizuki (who had been kind to her AND Naruto) both stealing and trying to kill the young ninja-in-training. Shino nodded, apparently satisfied, and only Shikamaru seemed slightly perplexed by the excuse. Naruto shrugged once, and sat down towards the back of the room where he would have to fend off fewer questions.

* * *

After explaining his story several times to the few students who actually cared enough to bother him, Naruto smiled as Iruka walked into the classroom, an envelope in his hand. Iruka explained the team system, the Genin cells, and finally began reading from the now-opened envelope.

Iruka had just started reading out the Genin candidates for Team 4 when Naruto suddenly groaned and tucked his head in his hands. The oh-so-famous Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura? It hadn't been so bad until he found that his future echoes failed, no matter what angle of the selection they protested. It wasn't that he didn't like the pair, it was just… they didn't like him. Sakura hadn't forgiven him for once asking her out, after he had fumbled a 'perfect' echo because he was nervous, and managed to insult her. She had hit him, beaten him to a pulp, if truth be told, and had been haughty and aloof ever since. Sasuke, on the other hand, just plain ignored everyone. There had been one time when he and Naruto had had a decent conversation, and that was when the young ninja had hidden the raven-haired boy from a group of his fan-girls one day a few months back.

Naruto sighed heavily, prompting a small warning from Iruka, before glumly settling his elbow on the desk, and his chin upon his hand. Positioned thusly, he waved his hand and gave an idle "Yeah, over here" when Iruka mentioned his name along with Sasuke's and Sakura's. He heard a "Kakashi" being mentioned, but Naruto switched off, and closed his eyes while he daydreamed.

* * *

Two hours later, and Naruto sat up straight with a look of pure surprise on his face. Sakura, who had been bored out of her skull until now, watched curiously as he wandered to the sliding door of the classroom, pulled Mizuki's old chair from the corner (where he positioned himself during Iruka's lectures) and nabbed an eraser from beside the chalkboard. Sasuke made a sound that was somewhere between approval and a shrug, and Sakura cocked her head to one side when Naruto's plan became clear to her.

"Naruto," she hissed, "get down off the damned chair! You'll get us into trouble! Besides, our teacher is a Jounin! Do you _really_ think he'll fall for such a stupid trick?"

Naruto finished his work, hopped down from the chair and replaced it, then walked back to his seat. As he passed Sakura, he simply glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, and gave her a small smirk of satisfaction. How little she knew…

* * *

"My first impressions are… you're a bunch of morons…" Hatake Kakashi muttered at the trio of young ninja from behind his mask. He brushed more chalk-dust from his hair, and looked at his new students. _Great_, he thought to himself, _I have the Uchiha heir, a Fan girl, and the Container. I hate losing bets to Sarutobi…_

Naruto smirked throughout his condemnation, and Sakura tried very hard to suppress the shock she felt that their supposedly elite Jounin teacher had fallen for the most pathetic prank ever pulled. Sasuke smirked behind his hands, grunted, and returned his gaze to the view from the window. Beyond the walls of Konoha laid his target, and he would have revenge…

Kakashi gave up brushing the chalk dust from his hair, and lazily pointed at the ceiling of the classroom. "We'll meet on the roof in a few minutes. I may throw you off it, or I may not, I haven't decided yet." He pointed out lazily before disappearing in a miniature whirlwind of leaves. Down the hallway, Iruka had just returned from his lunch and started grumbling about stupid techniques as a large amount of leaves suddenly appeared in the hallway outside his classroom, followed by the only three students he had left there. Naruto shrugged at him once, and followed his two new teammates to the stairs that led to the roof.

* * *

"So, lets start with your names, your likes, dislikes, dreams, you know, that sort of thing." Kakashi waved his hand while looking as bored as ever, before pointing at Sakura. "You, you're first."

"Ano…" Sakura began, "Can you not go first, Sensei, so we know what we're doing?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, but thankfully wasn't caught by Sakura. He would rather not have a lump on the back of his head for the rest of the day. Kakashi put his hand to his chin, and looked at the sky thoughtfully for a moment.

"Well, lets see… My name is Hatake Kakashi, and I have likes and dislikes. As for my dreams, well… They're dreams. Right, no more stalling, go."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched gently, and she muttered "all we learnt was his name" to herself before she straightened up and began.

"My name is Haruno Sakura, I like… I, I mean, my dreams are…" with each pause, she glanced at Sasuke, and finished with a pink flush to her cheeks. Naruto rolled his eyes again, but didn't when she finished with "I dislike Naruto."

"You, you're up" Kakashi said, gesturing idly at Sasuke with his right hand.

"Uchiha Sasuke. I don't have any real likes, dislike a lot of things, and my dream, or ambition, is to kill a certain man." Sasuke shrugged, and Sakura overplayed her part in reacting, now regarding Sasuke with something approaching worship.

Naruto waved his hand at Kakashi just as the grey-haired man was about to point to him. "You know, Kakashi-sensei, I _am_ the only one left. I am Uzumaki Naruto. I like Ramen, growing plants, and…" he glanced around dramatically before leaning in close to Kakashi, putting a hand next to his mouth and continuing in a stage-whisper "Seeing the future!" He sat back down, a grin splitting his face, before chuckling and carrying on once more. "I dislike waiting the three minutes it takes for Ramen to cook, some of the spiteful villagers, and my dream… I don't know, really… The only real dream I had was once, when I was about six, and I wanted to be the Hokage. I didn't pick another one after that, so I guess that'd be it, right?"

Naruto shrugged lamely, then laid back against an exposed pipe with his hands behind his head. Kakashi shook his head gently. These three were the worst group he had been given yet, and that was saying something. If the only one truly passionate about his future was the Uchiha, then this was going to be a very short teaching job.

"Well, thank you all for that little insight into your lives. Tomorrow morning, seven o'clock, training ground seven. Your Genin test begins then, and don't-"

"What do you mean, our Genin test?" Interrupted Sakura, looking shocked. "We're already Genin, so why do we have to take a test?"

"Beca-" Kakashi began, before being interrupted again.

"Because we only showed the _promise_ to be Genin, Sakura-chan… This test weeds out the ones who aren't ready yet because, for all that the Academy is good for learning from a textbook, and practising safely, the world is much more dangerous. Its why some 'geniuses' have been held back, because they weren't ready for the outside world yet." Naruto finessed, without opening his eyes. Kakashi blinked his eye, and nodded.

"Naruto is correct. Anyway, as I said, Seven at seven. Oh, and don't eat breakfast or anything, or you'll throw up." Kakashi smiled through his mask, the slight pinches in the otherwise featureless cloth giving his expression away, before forming a familiar hand-seal and disappearing once again in a torrent of leaves.

Naruto brushed a leaf away from his face without opening his eyes, stood up, and wandered off to "shop" for groceries.

* * *

Later, when Naruto was at home and had put away the various items he had had fall from carts and drop from mysteriously collapsing shelves into a bag. He hopped up onto the kitchen worktop, took a kunai from his thigh pouch and began spinning it around with his finger in the ring on the pommel. He stared out of the window idly, watching the sun go down over Konoha for some time before throwing the kunai across the kitchen and grinning as it hit the bulls-eye target. He grabbed an apple, ate it as he wandered around his small apartment and idly tidied up without looking, then flicked the core into the bin as he finished his circuit and headed to his bedroom. His day done, he clambered into bed and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Naruto awoke with a start. He had had a nightmare, and the sky outside was still pitch-black. His covers were almost thoroughly drenched in sweat, but he felt freezing cold. He pulled the kunai he kept under his pillow out and started spinning it around with his finger through the ring, ready to throw it as he swung himself out of bed and investigated his quite empty apartment.

He couldn't remember the dream. Not entirely. The only thing he remembered was making a promise. A promise he knew he had to keep, no matter what happened.

He returned to his bedroom, replaced the kunai to its hiding place, and looked at his clock. It read two in the morning, so despite his restlessness, he laid back down and tried to sleep once more.

* * *

When he awoke with the alarm clock's chimes at six, he still had his hand around the pommel of the small knife, and had his teeth gritted.


	4. Chapter 3: The Bells

**Bell Test**

* * *

Hatake Kakashi is known as Copy-ninja, Sharingan Kakashi, or even to some as the Son of Konoha's White Fang. He had never been defeated in over ten years of active service, and hadn't taken on any Genin team to be pushed onto him when it came to his turn on the teaching roster.

He had just lost part of that title, and was now saddled with three Genin, and a severely broken hand.

* * *

"The aim of this test is to- Naruto? Where were you? I said seven at seven. It is nine. Why are you so late?" Kakashi had said, growling as Naruto had airily sauntered over, a grin upon his face.

"Well… I was here at seven. When you hadn't turned up by a quarter past, as Sakura and Sasuke will tell you, I left. I made sure to stay nearby and left a Kage Bunshin to watch out for you arriving. I got here as fast as I could."

Kakashi's eyelid twitched in annoyance, and he rounded on Sakura.

"Its true, sensei…" she mumbled, hanging her head in shame.

Kakashi rolled his eye, and pointed next to Sasuke. "Stand there, listen."

Naruto sidled into position and gazed off into the distance.

"These two bells here are your objective. You are to get a bell, and whoever does, becomes a Genin. Whoever gets a bell, gets food. Clear?" Kakashi explained, and looked at each of his students in turn. "If you don't come at me with the full intention of killing me, you won't survive, and you won't stand a chance at getting a bell. Now-"

Naruto interrupted by plucking a kunai from his thigh pouch, twirling it on his finger and throwing it at Kakashi. The Jounin sidestepped and caught the knife, but before he could throw it back it exploded in a puff of smoke, and a Naruto was clinging onto his arm. Kakashi overbalanced and fell forward before punching the Naruto in between the eyes. 'Naruto' unsurprisingly disappeared, but instead of being replaced with nothing but air, a log greeted him. _Kawarimi!_

Kakashi turns his forward momentum into a roll, grabbing a handful of shuriken from his hip-pack as he did so, and threw them behind him. Another Naruto (or the same?) falling through the air towards him took the full set in the face and neck, only to be replaced by another log. Kakashi jumped before the log could strike him, and found himself held still by a kunai to the throat. Naruto had pulled the blade, and hadn't moved from his original position next to Sasuke, only to jump forward and threaten his sensei when the moment presented itself.

Kakashi grinned, then exploded in a rather large burst of cold water.

Naruto found the position he had held Kakashi in no more than a moment ago reversed, a blade to his own throat now. Kakashi grinned behind his mask, and said, "I didn't say sta-"

"Bye." Naruto interrupted, the clone dispersing. Kakashi couldn't believe it. He turned, and threw his kunai blindly into the forest. A yelp followed a half moment later, and Naruto wandered from the tree line with a large hole in the left shoulder of his orange jacket.

"You could have had my eye out!" yelled Naruto, clearly distressed, but Kakashi just chuckled.

"Start."

With that, he disappeared in a swirl of leaves and left the three Genin on their own.

Before Naruto had a chance to stop his teammates, they had jumped away into the forest to hide, and formulate their plans. Naruto just sighed, fiddled idly with the new hole in his clothing, and strolled leisurely along the riverbank in plain view, humming.

* * *

"You know, you're a strange one, Naruto." Stated Kakashi as he walked up behind the young ninja. Naruto just stared out at the water, and nodded in agreement.

"That's what they say, Kakashi-sensei… I can't believe those two didn't get it straight off… they were the highest scoring in tests and everything…"

"Something that means nothing in the real world. You seem a bit too well learned considering your own scores. And those tricks you pulled earlier… only one clone? That could perform Kawarimi? Talents like that aren't easily overlooked, Naruto… One would think you didn't do as well as you could…"

"I'm not going to lie, sensei, I wasn't, and aren't, the smartest Genin ever."

Naruto turned his head slightly, looking over his shoulder at the copy-ninja.

"But even I knew when I was talking to a fake."

The Kage Bunshin dispersed, and Kakashi stared wide-eyed. He had an intelligent discussion with a being made up of air and chakra? He couldn't believe it! Not even his shadow clones were that advanced. He didn't have long to ponder the situation though, as a veritable hail of kunai and shuriken vomited forth from the trees behind him, followed by ten Narutos. He dodged, ducked, grabbed and deflected the various weapons, and greeted the charge of clones with vicious counters and strikes.

One clone swung for his face with a kunai gripped in its right hand, only for Kakashi to punch his left first into a block. The clone had a moment of surprise as Kakashi stepped forward, punched it in the face and turned to face the way he had come, before sliding his right arm underneath the clone's elbow and snapping the arm messily. A second was kicked so hard in the groin it lifted off the ground before dispersing in concert with the one Kakashi had brutally maimed.

The third, fourth and fifth clones were dispatched when all three lunged at him with their drawn kunai, and he dropped into a 'press up' position. As the clones pulled their attacks to stop themselves skewering each other, Kakashi pushed himself up and around, his legs twirling in the air and sending all three crashing to the ground from hard kicks in the guts.

He scissored his legs stood in time to greet the sixth with a hard punch to the face, feeling his own knuckle break along with the nose of the clone, which burst into smoke. The third and fourth had gotten back to their feet and charged Kakashi together, only to have him burst into water again. The pair looked around confused, only to spin around wildly at the sound of a horrible gargling noise. Kakashi held the pommel of a kunai that transfixed the fifth to the ground through its neck. The clone, somehow, hadn't dispersed yet, and was drowning on its own false lifeblood.

Kakashi panicked when the remaining clones simply dispersed with no further fight, and after looking around quickly he instantly panicked. He dropped to his knees, and pulled the kunai clear of Naruto's throat.

"Hang on Naruto, I'll-" was as far as he got, before Naruto grinned, and literally exploded.

* * *

"That's your plan? You distract him; we grab the bells and win? I don't think it'll work, Naruto…" Sakura said, sceptically. This 'plan' of Naruto's relied heavily on him being able to distract their Jounin sensei, and even involved Sasuke joining in while Sakura grabbed the bells Kakashi had attached to his waist, and then handed one to Sasuke when he exited the fight under cover of a Henge'd Bunshin.

She was about to argue more when a loud explosion came from some distance away, followed by the splash of a heavy object landing in water badly.

"Come on," Naruto yelled as he stumbled to his feet, running towards the sound. "We've got to hurry!"

Sakura looked to Sasuke for an opinion, but the boy merely shrugged and rose from his haunches before setting off after Naruto. Sakura too jumped to her feet, and together they ran towards Kakashi.

* * *

Kakashi pulled himself out of the river, using the water as someone would the edge of a swimming pool. He stood atop the water, his eye narrowed in anger. _That little bastard! _He thought to himself, letting his anger manifest as killing intent. _That little bastard exploited my kindness in the worst way possible. He's only a kid! How could he be so good at this?!_

At that moment, Sasuke burst from the tree line, jumping into the air and loosing two fistfuls of shuriken at the Jounin. Kakashi jumped to his right, only to have to allow himself to fall into the water below as Sakura ran out from the trees, throwing her own shuriken at him. Kakashi let out a single air-bubble of frustration as he ran through hand-signs. _Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!_

Sasuke leapt back from the riverbank, closely followed by a screaming Sakura, as a 12-foot tall Dragon made entirely of water burst from the otherwise calm river and lunged at them. Kakashi let the dragon run on the chakra he had given it, allowing it to control itself for a few precious moments as he clambered atop the water's surface again. The technique was seriously under-powered, but even so it was more than enough to scatter the two Genin. So content was he, he failed to notice two hands reach up from below the water until they had grabbed his ankles and pulled him under. Kakashi turned himself as best he could, only to be greeted with the widely grinning face of Naruto. Kakashi punched the clone so hard his fist left the other side of its body, and the water around him was momentarily stained red before the chakra keeping it "alive" dispersed and all evidence of its existence was removed from the world. Kakashi knifed through the water to the riverbank, sick of being immersed again and again, and pulled himself onto dry land. He had just drawn himself up to his full height before a sound that filled him with dread was heard.

"KATON: GOKAKYU NO JUTSU!!"

Kakashi leapt forward, the fireball summoned by Sasuke scorching the back of his clothing dry, and singeing the material. Sakura held kunai in both hands, and had apparently been waiting for Kakashi to evade as she charged forward, swinging the bladed weapons wildly in the hope of hitting him. Kakashi almost sighed despite himself. In comparison to the two boys, her technique was sloppy and well below par. He evaded once or twice, before gripping the top of her head, sidestepping her wild swings, and pushing her behind and away from him.

* * *

Sasuke had just landed on the ground the moment that Kakashi appeared next to him and planted a punch in his gut that had been coming for over ten yards. The Uchiha boy was thrown away a good twenty feet before he exploded in the tell-tale "cwumph" noise of a Kage Bunshin. Kakashi rounded on Sakura, only to fall to his knees at the sight he beheld.

Three Narutos stood before him, the one in the centre with his arms folded. The two flanking him had taken up guard positions in front of the rather tired-looking Sakura, and the rather wet Sasuke. It seems the water-dragon had succeeded after all.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei, I think I fail…" shouted Naruto, smirking. At this, Sakura and Sasuke each held up a bell. Kakashi goggled at the sight, and shakily reached up and uncovered his Sharingan eye, his 'gift' from Obito. The bells weren't Genjutsu. They were real.

Kakashi lowered his hitai-ite once more, and leant forward before chuckling gently. Within the space of ten seconds, this had grown to hysterical laughter, and ended with the famous Copy-Ninja punching the ground so hard, each of his students heard the remaining bones break.

Kakashi stood, regarding his pupils with admiration, and contempt.

"You three… pass. You two got the bells, and that little shit figured out the teamwork part and brought you together. Go home. Meet here in two days, seven at seven… Go on." The Jounin said haltingly, before staring at the ground in front of him.

Sasuke turned and left. Sakura followed, albeit stopping every now and again to look back and make sure Team 7's teacher hadn't killed the last remaining member. Soon the pair were out of sight and Naruto dispersed his clones.

Kakashi gripped his right wrist in his left hand, holding the wounded extremity gingerly. He stood shakily, and walked slowly towards Naruto.

"You… had me on the back foot a lot there, Naruto… I'll have to watch you."

Naruto stared for a moment, before nodding. He turned, and walked with his sensei back to Konoha, and the hospital it contained.


	5. Chapter 4: The Mission

**28 Days Later**

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto sat up in bed, his eyes wide. Before he could stop himself, he had thrown the kunai he kept under his pillow across the room, and flinched as it stuck in the wall opposite, narrowly missing a clay pot that held a Dracaena Marginata. He hung his head, threw his bedcovers aside and swung his legs out of bed, retrieving the kunai from the wall with some difficulty before yawning, stretching, and ruffling his hair. He ignored the future echo of himself that had somehow managed to set fire to the cooker, and the one that was choking to death on a lump of sausage, and grabbed a glass from the sideboard.

It was rather depressing, he thought, to wake up every morning and see yourself die from being stupid. He spared a glance for the asphyxiating self as it turned blue, fell to the floor, and died with a strangled gasp. He watched dispassionately as the self that had set fire to the cooker rolled in vain on the floor, trying to put out the flames that had taken to his orange jacket. Thankfully, he was spared the view of his own pyromaniacal death because of the precise two-minute cut-off point. He sighed once, and filled his glass with water from the tap. He sipped it thoughtfully, taking his usual place on the worktop, looking out over an early-morning Konoha and thinking. He had had the dream again, of making the promise. It had grown more and more vivid, over the past month. The only problem was that whenever he awoke, the dream flittered away from him, like so many grains of sand through his fingers.

Naruto shrugged to himself, drained his glass, and walked to the door of his apartment. He pulled it open just in time to overbalance Sakura, who was about to knock, and she fell to the floor of his apartment with a faint look of shock. He chuckled to himself, and wandered to his bedroom to get changed for the day, shouting "Make yourself at home!" over his shoulder as he did every time the kunoichi came to rouse him from his slumber.

* * *

Every morning, Sakura would go to knock at the door, and every day Naruto would open it at exactly the correct moment to send her tumbling to the ground in a heap before laughing it off and going to get changed for the day. Sakura would sit at the kitchen table, drum her fingers a while, and yell at Naruto for making her fall again. They'd both walk to training ground seven, wait for fifteen minutes, and Naruto would make a show of creating a Kage Bunshin to watch the area for them before they left to go and either get a larger breakfast, or do any small tasks they needed to get out of the way before beginning a D-rank mission.

* * *

Naruto smiled to himself as he changed clothes. He fingered the cloth of his orange jacket, around the area Kakashi's thrown kunai would have left a hole. There wasn't a hole at all, due to the recipient of the knife being a shadow clone, but he liked to remind himself that it had only been Kakashi's skill, and Naruto's foresight that had stopped that injury becoming harmful. Naruto had watched himself dodge at the wrong time and die twenty times before he decided he'd better let a clone endure the danger, and he knew his extra self had "died" at least twelve times itself before it had gotten it right. He didn't know exactly how, which was a pain, but he put it down to weirdness. After all, he could see the future for a short span of time, and lived in a village full of ninjas who manipulated life energy and the elements to perform techniques well beyond the average mortal. He held the most powerful of the nine tailed beasts captive in his stomach, for god's sake! If that wasn't weird, what WAS?!

Naruto exited his bedroom and apologised to Sakura for making her fall another day in a row. The pair left, arrived at training ground seven a minute before seven, and greeted Sasuke who arrived at almost exactly the same time.

Naruto waited the fifteen minutes, conjured up a clone, and wandered off with a wave over his shoulder at his companions.

* * *

Naruto hummed to himself gently. He contemplated going 'shopping', but remembered he still had a full larder. He had canned foods aplenty, and had enough bread and fruit to last him a while. He kicked a stone and watched as it flew in five directions at once before smirking to himself. He approached the stone with a wry grin on his face, and simply tapped it with his foot. It skittered a few inches before he dismissed it from his attention, and walked on.

He stepped once to his left before continuing on his route, a gobbet of bird crap landing where his head had once been.

Naruto sighed, pulled out a kunai and began twirling it around his finger by the ring-pommel again. It had become a habit, and one he probably needed to break, but it helped pass the time. He thought about his teammates, his teacher, even his plants at home, before he got bored again. He slid the kunai gently back into his thigh-pouch, and wandered into Konoha's outskirts.

* * *

Sakura had watched Naruto with a puzzled expression on her face since he had left. She had stayed well back, and observed the surprising ninja for a while as he walked back to the village. He had so far done nothing important, but she was interested in exactly what he did. Any other time, she would have been talking to Sasuke, but he had smirked and disappeared in a swirl of leaves before she could even say his name. Either Kakashi had taught him it, or the young boy had found it himself and learnt it so he could escape fights or fan girls. Sakura was fairly put out by that. Surely he wanted to spend time talking with her, right? She was, after all, his teammate. He must have had other things to do today before Kakashi turned up.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, Sakura followed Naruto and then really started to wonder what the hell was going on.

* * *

Naruto ducked his head as a rotten tomato sailed through the air, and turned his body aside before a villager walking towards him butted their shoulder into his. The man staggered, and was just in time to catch another rotten vegetable to the chest that had been meant for Naruto. The young ninja carried on walking, ignoring the attempts meant to inconvenience him. He simply walked forwards, evading without looking like it was so, before he came to a small shop and headed inside. He flicked his hand out, and traced it along the spines of books without actually looking at the titles, before stopping and pulling one out from amongst the others. He did this three more times before he headed to the counter. He placed them down, threw a small handful of coins next to them after a few moments, picked up his purchases and left. The old man who ran the bookshop was about to yell and tell the boy he might have paid him wrong, but after checking the change, found it was exact. The man scratched his head in confusion, but put it down to yet another ninja trick.

* * *

Naruto held the books under his left arm, and returned to his apartment at a saunter. He couldn't be much bothered with hurrying, as he knew that Kakashi still had another hour an a half before he turned up, assuming the Jounin kept to his usual schedule.

Sakura wandered up the stairs to Naruto's apartment, and was surprised when the door opened before she got near it. A muffled "Come on in, Sakura-chan!" came from within, and her cheeks stained themselves a light pink as she crossed the threshold and found Naruto sat at his kitchen table with two plates in front of him, both with slices of toast on them. "Sit, eat, and ask me what I was doing all morning, even though you already know." Naruto grinned at her, before pushing one of the plates with the back of his fingers towards her. It slid across the table, and came to a halt in front of one of the chair she had just made a move to pull out and sit in.

"I… I wasn't-" Sakura began.

"You followed me from the training grounds."

"I-I did, but only so I could-"

"Find out what I do? I bought some books, Sakura-chan, and came home to have breakfast."

"I know, but-"

"They're about growing things. Two of them are, anyway. One is a book on chakra manipulation, and the other is about the Shodaime Hokage. I like to learn, believe it or not…"

"Can you please-"

"Stop answering your questions before you ask them? Why? You don't need see the future to figure out you want to know something."

Sakura spluttered a moment, and screwed her face up in a frown. Naruto was running rings around her! She was _not_ standing for this.

"Maybe I-"

"No, you weren't. Its no big deal, Sakura-chan, you wanted to know what I bought, I told you, and before you asked for a slice of toast I gave you a couple of your own. Its called "being a good host" I think…" Naruto interrupted once more, leaving Sakura fuming.

She grabbed a slice of toast from her plate and munched it down angrily, glaring at Naruto every few seconds while he simply sat and ate with a happy little grin on his face.

* * *

The pair of young ninja wandered back to training ground seven for nine, finding Sasuke still sat in his usual place on top of one of the three large tree stumps that had constituted as their "survival training" starting point a month ago.

Sasuke nodded a 'hello', and Naruto waved his hand absently before taking up his own position, leaning with his back to the middle stump. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, his orange jacket open to reveal the black t-shirt he wore underneath, before leaning his head back and closing his eyes to bask in the warm sunshine.

So began yet another day of D-rank missions under Hatake Kakashi for team seven.

* * *

Naruto was up to his knees in watery mud, his arms coated up to the elbow as he shuffled backwards through a rice paddy, planting the stems every few feet.

A veritable army of his clones worked alongside him, the field of orange workers broken only by a single red figure, and a blue-and-white one. Kakashi was leaning up against a cart, his orange book in hand, as he watched his students working. He, like them, had tired quickly of D-rank missions, but until they had completed a few more he knew they couldn't progress onto C-ranks. It was tedious, but it built up their stamina a little, and helped with their patience no end (especially the babysitting duties). The key to getting through the D-ranks quickly was not complaining, and thankfully his three students had done just that. They had kept their mouths shut, and though he felt it was getting to the point where one of them would break and ask for a harder mission, he knew he would be able to give them the chance if they only held out a couple more days.

He watched as the slightly staggered line of mostly orange workers reached the end of the paddy, all rice stems planted equally, and chuckled as each clone dismissed itself by high-fiving another hard, and effectively destroyed themselves in the process. He dismissed his three students for the day, and crossed a thirtieth mission from his instructor's handbook (which he surreptitiously kept hidden inside his copy of Icha Icha). Tomorrow, he would ask for a C-rank mission for them.

* * *

Naruto performed his nightly ritual of tidying whilst eating an apple, and clambered into bed. He fell almost immediately to sleep, more tired from the day's work in the rice paddy than he thought possible given he had only done a single row himself, whereas it felt like he had done everything.

In his dreams, he made a promise once again. The time was jumbled, and didn't make much sense at all, but it was lost upon his subconscious mind.

He saw flashes of what was to be, and what could be, he saw friends and spoke names he had never known, and when he awoke with a scream at three in the morning, he managed to stop himself from decapitating the plant on the other side of the room with an errantly thrown kunai.

He went back to sleep, a promise on his mind, and an argument about family disappearing slowly into the ethereal depths of his subconscious, to be forgotten.

* * *

"I think they're ready for a C-rank by now, don't you, Hokage-sama?" Hatake Kakashi asked, a finger scratching his mask-covered chin idly. He cocked his head to one side, and smiled half-heartedly as Sarutobi gave him an inquisitive look.

"Thirty D-ranks completed already? What about the rice field?" The old man said, sceptical, until Naruto piped up.

"We finished that yesterday, Ojiisan. One full field planted, and we even had time to make up the shortfall in one of the others."

Sarutobi glanced at Kakashi, who nodded in confirmation. The older man sighed, and held out his left hand to Iruka for another folder.

"Fine, then. Team seven's first C-rank mission, is to escort a man called Tazuna to his home in the Land of Waves. It isn't too difficult, and it's a low risk assignment, but are you sure they're up to it, Kakashi?"

"I'd stake my life on it." Kakashi replied, smiling at his students as all three looked around at him in faint surprise.

"Its settled then. I'll let Tazuna know he's ready to go, and good luck. You all leave tomorrow morning, at eight."


	6. Chapter 5: The Journey

**

* * *

**

And so it begins…

* * *

_I promise… I'll bring him back. No matter the cost._

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto leapt from his bed with a scream, his pillow in one hand and kunai in the other. He landed on all fours, the pillow held against the floor by its 'throat', and the young boy proceeded to stab it in the 'eye socket' again and again.

Feathers puffed out from the multiple tears in the fabric like arterial spurts, the young boy's voice breaking and becoming more hoarse with each passing second. He stopped after an age, the kunai blunted beyond repair and his left hand bearing a few healing cuts and scabs from misdirected, blind attacks. He opened his eyes, finally realising he was awake, and looked in shock at the mess he had made.

He released both kunai and pillow, pushing himself back and sitting on his backside, his spine propped upright against the edge of his bed. He leant his head back and ran a hand over his face before massaging the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. He remembered the words. He remembered the feeling of betrayal. He remembered… He…

He remembered words. He remembered a nightmare. A nightmare that seemed more real than it had a right to.

He opened his eyes, blinking twice to alleviate the blur that tiredness caused, and looked at the clock. Five in the morning, precisely three hours before he left with the other members of team seven via the east gate of Konoha. Three hours before he left the village for the first time in his short life.

Finding he wasn't so tired as he had been a moment ago, the small amount of adrenaline that began flowing from the concept of seeing a land that was alien to him waking him up more than finishing his required eight hours of sleep.

* * *

Naruto showered, dressed, and wandered to the kitchen, stepping over three future echoes that were even now meeting their ill-fated ends. He sighed at the memory of two days ago, when before he had left to plant rice in fields he had contemplated the banality of seeing the fatal errors he could make before even leaving his home. He dreaded to think how long his luck would have held if he couldn't see the consequences of his actions (the short term ones at least) before the fact.

Naruto shrugged to himself, opened his fridge and pulled out a carton of fresh orange, popping the lid and drinking straight from the container. He finished gulping it down and put it back, his hand skimming over the various contents of meat and vegetables. What to have? More to the point, what to cook for the trip? He was damned if he was going to walk all the way to the Land of the Waves with basic ration bars sustaining him. He'd die for sure if he had to eat the processed, tasteless chunks of rehashed foodstuffs and powdered vitamins every step of the way, and he wasn't entirely sure how long it would take to get there without using the speed and agility of a ninja in training.

Naruto quickly grabbed a handful of meats and vegetable that would survive a long time after cooking, and would still (he hoped) be edible while cold. He had at least an hour and a half before he needed to go out and 'shop' for additional equipment, and decided to make the best of it he could.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke materialised at the East Gate at seven thirty two precisely. The leaves that heralded his arrival swirled in the fading eddies and currents of the technique Hatake Kakashi had taught him before they were whisked away by the much gentler breeze.

He glanced around, and after seeing that no members of his team were about to arrive, he wandered to a nearby wall and perched himself atop it. He kicked his heels against it absently before clamping down on the childish movement, contenting himself with spinning a kunai by the pommel-ring around his finger. He had seen his orange-clad companion do the same a few days ago and, surprised by the show of dexterity, had endeavoured to teach himself the same trick. He had nicked his hand only a few times before getting the act down to an art, and had even experimented with the direction of the spinning, and smirked to himself at the mental image of Naruto being shown up again. He span it one way and then the other a few times, watching the sun glint from the blade's edges for a few minutes.

* * *

Sakura was next to arrive, wandering along casually with a pack upon her back, both straps over her shoulders and her thumbs hooked in the reinforced canvas that they consisted of. She had her face turned up to the sky, watching birds soar overhead, her pink locks fluttering slightly with her movement. Sasuke rolled his eyes as he was reminded of her less-than-helpful attempts at fawning over him. Why did girls compete over him? Was he a trophy of some kind? He carried on spinning his knife. _Girls_ , thought the twelve year old, _are weird as hell._

* * *

Hatake Kakashi walked slowly with the architect Tazuna through the streets of Konoha. The main street towards the East Gate from the Hokage Tower was filled with people setting up stalls or opening their stores for the day ahead, some vendors placing their wares in front of their establishments, others opening shutters, and still others simply loading up carts to be moved throughout the village so as to peddle their stock in less crowded and less fierce arenas. The shopping district could be a hell all of its own once people decided that today was the day to stock up on the essentials.

The builder was sipping at a bottle of sake, which prompted the Jounin to frown slightly. The man was acting guiltily, but he couldn't be sure of what. If it pertained to the mission, then he would need to have a serious talk with him.

The pair crossed the small bridge that led towards the East Gate, and Kakashi spotted a pair of his students waiting already. It was only ten-to-eight, but surely Naruto (who stood out like a sore thumb in his orange clothing, even without the company of his red and blue team mates) should have been there with them?

Kakashi shrugged. Naruto had a habit of turning up exactly on time, or just at the most opportune moment to cause the most disturbances. It was never a shade of grey with that boy, always black or white.

Kakashi remembered a morning about a fortnight ago when he had arrived at training ground seven, about nine-ish, to find Sakura and Sasuke staring, open-mouthed, and Naruto giggling at their gormless expressions. He checked himself over, looking for any glaringly obvious signs of embarrassment (especially an open zipper in an inopportune place) before cocking his head at Naruto in silent demand for an explanation. The blonde child had just pointed to his feet, and when he looked down Kakashi found a large black cross painted on the floor. He goggled at the sight, and cocked his eyebrows in questioning. He had appeared as always, in a flurry of leaves, so how the hell had someone known exactly where he would stand? He looked up at the trio of children.

"What-" was as far as he got before Naruto smirked, held up his right hand in a half-Tiger seal, and muttered 'Kai'.

At that moment, Kakashi had sensed a Genjutsu being released, whirling around to see ten Narutos hefting water balloons at him. His eye went wide before clamping it shut. The balloons struck all over, drenching the Jounin, and he turned to glare at Naruto before he was replaced with a log.

Kakashi had hidden himself just out of sight behind a tree at the edge of the training ground, and contemplated sneaking up behind Naruto and using _that_ technique. Sennen Goroshi was a cruel punishment, but fitting. Before he had a chance to exact his vengeance, though, he had been tapped on the shoulder. Confused, he had turned to come face to face with an upside-down Naruto. The child pointed down, which translated as up to the Jounin, and like a fool he leaned his head back in time to catch a bag of flour to the face. Covered from head to foot in the white powder, Kakashi swore and simply wandered from the trees towards his Genin. He had learnt a week ago that if Naruto succeeded in pranking you, he managed to evade you no matter what your skill level in tracking, whether you could summon ninja dogs, or indeed anything. Naruto always seemed to be a step ahead of the ex-ANBU, although given his previous exploits and the merry chases he had led whole squads of ANBU and Jounin on before, Kakashi assumed the young blonde must have had near Kage-level stealth, even if he didn't exercise it as much as he exercised his skill at practical joking.

"Very funny, Naruto…" was the best the lazy Jounin could manage, before deciding he would simply up the amount of D-ranks his young wards should perform. The revenge, however, was swiftly forgotten along with other important things, like what time to set his alarm for.

Kakashi chuckled at the memory, and earned a slightly confused look from Tazuna before explaining it to the man. The slightly drunk bridge-builder simply began chuckling while he drank.

* * *

"Good-" Kakashi began, only to have Naruto arrive in a near-cyclone of leaves. He grinned as the leaves that announced his arrival managed to lodge themselves in the hair and loose folds of clothing of his companions, and put his hands behind his head in satisfaction.

Kakashi sighed to himself, and removed a leaf that had lodged itself between his forehead and his hitai-ite. "I was about to say 'Good Morning, everyone', but as always Naruto has spoilt it."

Naruto's face fell open in abject horror before he screwed it up in a cross between anger and a pout, folding his arms and turning his face away from the Jounin.

"In a few minutes, we're going to set off for the Land of the Waves. Tazuna here is our client, I want you all to say hello and let him know your names. We'll be together for about a week before we reach our destination so we should all know one another and at least try to get on if we can't manage it."

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura chorused a "Morning, Tazuna-san" and rounded it off by (in that order) supplying their names. Tazuna looked a little apprehensive, but reciprocated good-humouredly.

"Now, have you all got your camping equipment? Kunai? Shuriken? Food? First-aid kits? I have spare just in case, but I'd like to think you all were aptly prepared. Naruto, where's your pack?"

Naruto looked flustered, but scratched the back of his head.

"I, err… I don't have one, Kakashi-sensei…"

"What?" Kakashi replied, his eyebrow rising in disbelief.

"I don't have a pack. I went out earlier and got a few containment scrolls and sealed all my stuff in there, apart from my kunai, shuriken and some bandages and stuff."

Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief. He had never used the things himself, thinking the "carry a scroll, not a bag" idea a tad gimmicky for a Ninja, but figured it had appealed to the young boy's sense. He shrugged, and let it slip. He had panicked then, but as usual Naruto had managed to avoid a stern reprisal.

"That's good Naruto, but don't make me panic again, okay? Now, we're burning daylight so, if you're all ready, we'll set off."

The trio of young ninja chirruped their assent, and the motley group of five set out at a moderate pace. The adventure had officially begun.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke walked towards the front of the group, second in line only to Naruto who was doing a supreme job of pissing the Uchiha off and shocking him at the same time. The blonde Genin was copying him down to the very last movement. Sasuke was twirling a kunai on the index finger of his right hand. He tried slowing the spin, reversing the direction, stopping and starting at random, but without even looking Naruto was matching him move for move. Just as Sasuke was about to ask, Naruto flicked the kunai from his finger almost straight up into the air. When it fell, Naruto slipped his pinkie into the pommel-ring and began spinning it counter-clockwise as opposed to the usual clockwise motion. He flicked it behind his back and caught the ring again with the index finger of his left hand and began spinning it again, plucking another kunai from his thigh pouch and spinning that in his right hand. He turned around, spinning the two kunai expertly, to face the Uchiha boy. Naruto smirked, and twitched his head backwards in a dare. Rising to the challenge, Sasuke tossed his kunai at the young boy.

Naruto grinned, and deflected it straight up with a suddenly stock-still kunai clenched in his right hand that had whipped up in front of his face. He waited until the knife had reached the apex of its journey into the air, and threw the other bladed weapons up as well.

Sasuke, Sakura, Tazuna and Kakashi all stopped then, as they noticed the display that had begun. Naruto was _juggling his kunai with his eyes closed!_

Kakashi leapt forward immediately, catching each kunai on a different finger before serious harm could come to the blonde prankster.

"Naruto, what the hell do you think you're doing?? Do you know how DANGEROUS that was?" Kakashi all but yelled at the boy before he put his head in his free hand at the grin that met the accusation. Kakashi shook his head and gave two of the three knives back to Naruto, the third he handed back to Sasuke.

"Just don't do it again, okay? Both of you put the knives away and… I don't know, talk for a change?"

Naruto shrugged in time with the Uchiha, and both placed their kunai in their thigh pouches. Naruto 'hn'd at Sasuke, who shrugged. Both put their hands in their pockets and took their place at the front of the impromptu convoy before glaring out of the corners of their eyes at the other for copying their posture and behaviour.

* * *

This continued for a while, until Naruto suddenly became rather serious, the fingers of his right hand drumming against his pants' leg. The quintet walked along the path, soon passing a small puddle. Kakashi glanced around quickly and prepared himself. He wasn't sure if any of the others had noticed the almost imperceptible flaw in their environment, and he dismissed Naruto's odd behaviour because it had started before they had passed the puddle, or even been able to see it in the first place.

With a cry, two Ninjas burst from the small puddle, clad in neutral-coloured rags. They wore identical breathing masks, and each wore a huge metal gauntlet upon one arm. A chain of razor-sharp, spike-tipped links joined the two, and they took no time in looping this around Kakashi.

Kakashi's eye went wide, and Sakura screamed in horror as he was eviscerated horribly, his blood spattering onto her face and clothes due to her proximity. Naruto was already moving, pushing a surprised Sasuke aside before leaping into the air and kicking Tazuna of all people in the stomach. The elderly man fell to the floor, winded, and Sakura unfroze. She ran to the old man, skidding to a halt and plucking a kunai from her thigh pouch. Sasuke goggled at Naruto's act, and was about to shout at the boy when the orange-clothed boy landed facing him, and held a finger to his lips. The chain between the two enemy ninja fell around his body like a huge snake, and ripped him to shreds just as Naruto winked at the Uchiha.

Sasuke froze, Naruto's act stunning him into silence. His eyes widened as he saw the two ninja nod to one another and charge at him, and he plain fell onto his backside as Naruto appeared in front of him in a flurry of leaves.

"Oi, morons, you need to be faster. Shall we dance?" Naruto challenged as the pair of enemy ninja ceased their charge. The pair growled, glanced at one another, then began running once more. Naruto ran towards them, only to be caught on their razor-sharp chain and fall to the ground in two messy halves.

* * *

The pair growled, glanced at one another, then began running once more. Naruto ran towards them and dropped into a sliding tackle at the last moment, knocking the right ninja's legs out from under him. As the boy fell, Naruto reached up and dug his fingers into the mask the ninja wore, tearing it off with a grunt. The masked ninja skidded to a halt, turned, and plunged the sharpened claws of his gauntlet deep into Naruto's spine in a welter of blood.

* * *

As the boy fell, Naruto reached up and dug his fingers into the mask the ninja wore, tearing it off with a grunt. The masked ninja skidded to a halt, turned, and plunged the sharpened claws of his gauntlet into Naruto's spine, only for the blonde to disappear in a flash of smoke. The masked ninja found the claws embedded deeply in a log, an explosive tag attached to the bark. His eyes widened, and he threw his arm out in a wide swipe to rid himself of the booby trap. He was knocked backwards as the tag went off, pieces of twig and bark slicing at his revealed skin and clothing. His unmasked accomplice stood shakily and yelled in frustration. He looked around and saw Naruto charging at the disorientated pair from the trees lining the roadside.

The ninja leapt forwards, meeting Naruto's charge with one of his own, and plunged his gauntlet deep into the ninja with a yell of triumph. The blonde exploded into smoke with a sharp 'cwumph', and he had a moment for the surprise to register before he was knocked senseless with a punch to the back of his head.

* * *

Sakura stared at what had just happened. Her dead teacher had burst from the trees at the same time as Naruto had, had grabbed the masked one around the neck and kneed him in the face before chambering a punch and smacking the one that had just 'killed' Naruto in the base of the skull. Both enemy ninja fell to the floor unconscious, and Naruto stepped up beside her with a serious look on his face. Sasuke hadn't moved from his position on the floor, still staring at the scene that had unfolded, his eyes wide in barely supressed horror.

* * *

"Tazuna-san, don't get me wrong. I am extremely cross at Naruto for thinking that attacking you was the best way to get you out of harms way. I also realise that, given our attackers, it was the most expedient thing to do at the time. That is playing a second fiddle to the anger I feel at you though, for not submitting this mission correctly and misleading my team, my village, and me. The two who attacked us are Chuunin-level missing nins from Kirigakure. They are not simple bandits. You are to explain to me, in detail, exactly who we can expect to be up against, and why you lied about the mission classification. If you are lucky, you can expect us to return you to Konoha and have it classified properly before sending out another team. At worst, you carry on this trip alone and we go home without looking back. You have five minutes, precisely, while I talk to my team. Think quickly."

Kakashi turned on his heel, and stalked over to where Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto were sitting. Sakura was staring into space, no doubt replaying the fight over and over in her head and realising how close she had been to death simply by freezing up. Sasuke was taking furtive sideways glances at Naruto, and the blonde boy was leaning back on his hands and staring at the sky with a thoughtful look upon his face.

Kakashi squatted, resting on his haunches and waited until their attention was on him. "You three did well. I'm very proud of you all, especially you Sakura."

Sakura's head shot up, her face displaying utter confusion.

"You, out of the three who could have done it," Kakashi began explaining, "were alone in rushing to our client's side and taking up a defensive posture, which was what you should have done. Sasuke I am sure would have moved to attack the enemy were he not beaten to the punch by Naruto. I assume you would have disabled their chain weapon to separate the two, and had Naruto or I assist in incapacitating them, correct?"

Sasuke nodded, and Sakura blushed softly.

"Naruto, I am both pleased and disappointed with. You first made no move to defend our client; instead you attacked him needlessly and endangered the mission. What if you had failed, and instead of being able to run away, Tazuna was stuck on the floor with no air in his lungs and no way of escaping? You then proceeded to take on BOTH ninja by yourself, and would most likely have failed to defeat them unless Sasuke or, as it happened, I stepped in. You did, however, not freeze up and acted accordingly at the same time, effectively separating the two by incapacitating one and then the other by exploiting weaknesses. You allowed me enough time to arrive, and did of-sorts protect the client, even if I don't agree with the method."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and blushed a darker shade of red than Sakura, chuckling nervously at the reproach.

"Well done, all of you." Kakashi finished lamely, and rose to his full height.

* * *

Kakashi wandered back to Tazuna, who had lowered his gaze to the floor and had recovered enough to breath easily.

"Well?"

Tazuna raised his eyes, then removed his straw hat and wiped his forehead. "The Land of Waves has been taken over by the trader Gato. His thugs have taken the position of a police force, and he has effectively strangled the entire land to fill his own pockets. He holds monopolies on all our industry and endeavours, and people who oppose him disappear every week."

"I see." Kakashi interjected, settling on his haunches again.

"The bridge I am building is to allow us to open our own trade routes again. My country is poor, and the people are starving. Gato has sapped the money from the region and has destroyed our way of life. If we finished our bridge, he would lose out on his contracts and we would become a prosperous land again. If we had that bridge… it would be a lease of life that we haven't had in a long time."

"And so Gato has hired ninja to kill you so the bridge won't be completed, hm?" Kakashi asked, and nodded to himself. "It sounds about right. This is easily a B- or even A-rank mission, if he has managed to hire himself any more ninja. Why did you lie?"

"I told you, we're a poor country and we're starving. We don't have the money to pay for anything above a C-rank mission, I had no choice but to lie!"

"You could have explained the situation, paid the debt through a tithe of crops or labourers?"

"We were desperate… Those of us who saw the need for protective measures to be taken weren't thinking clearly. It never occurred to us-"

"So now my students are in danger. I will have to ask them what they want to do, you realise? If it was up to me I would simply leave you to carry on unattended, but I can't speak for them. Wait here."

Kakashi rose and walked back to the three Genin. He was about to speak when Naruto opened his mouth.

"We've been talking, sensei. We want to carry on with the mission, regardless of the new ranking."

Kakashi sighed. This was what he was afraid of. "Any particular reason why, you three?"

"One day we'll be in a mission that is way over our heads," Sasuke started, "and what will we do then? Better to have it now while we have an elite Jounin teacher with us, than later when we're on our own and stand to lose much more than a reputation."

"A-and we need to improve, Kakashi-sensei. I froze, until Naruto kicked Tazuna… I couldn't do anything. I don't want that to happen again." Sakura shyly explained, her shame stopping her from looking at anything but Kakashi's feet.

Kakashi sighed heavily and put his hands in his pockets. The three Genin had a good argument, and it made sense. Who better to help them if things went wrong than an ex-ANBU custodian?

"Fine, we'll continue. I'm warning you though, if at any point I deem this too dangerous for you, you are all to come with me and we'll return to Konoha, agreed?"

A chorus of assents came from the trio, and Kakashi motioned for them to stand. He waited until they rose, and walked back to Tazuna with the young ninja in tow.

Tazuna looked up in surprise at the four bodyguards, and was surprised when Kakashi held out a hand to help the older man up from the forest floor. Tazuna took it, and Kakashi hefted him up with barely any effort.

"We're continuing" Kakashi explained, before turning and walking off in the direction of the Land of Waves. Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto nodded to him, Naruto even going so far as to bow and apologise for attacking him, and then walked on after their teacher.

Tazuna followed them on a moment later, smiling at the blonde's behaviour. That kid might go far, being willing to mistreat his clients for their own good. He froze and his face fell a moment later, as he imagined Naruto's reaction to his young grandson Inari. _Oh boy…_


	7. Chapter 6: The Demon of the Mist

**A New Land**

* * *

The mist was thick today. It coiled and undulated like hundreds of serpents, and faint wisps of the denser fog gently swayed in between the six occupants of the rowboat. Kakashi was sat towards the rear next to Tazuna, orange-covered book in hand. Naruto was knelt at the front, looking over the prow of the boat at the ripples it caused in the water. His head was rested on his folded arms, and his eyes were half-closed in boredom.

Sasuke was sat casually nearby, looking at the scaffolding surrounding the foot of the huge bridge the party gliding alongside. He drummed his fingers against his knee irritatingly, but no one called him up on the foible. Sakura was hugging herself for warmth, twitching at every inhuman noise made from the over-loud croaking of toads to the strange hoot of an unseen creature. She shivered from the ambience of the scene, her mind at work imagining all sorts of horrors.

"We're here." The oar-man muttered, breaking the silence. The tension in the air was almost as thick and tangible as the fog, heavy and foreboding.

Kakashi nodded once and stood. He hopped from the boat onto the water, standing on the surface as one would the ground. The oar-man looked confused for a moment, but returned his expression to neutrality when he noticed the blue-clothed hitai-ites on the three pre-teens that were still in his transport. Kakashi pulled the prow up onto a sandy bank, and pushed the wooden ship back to freedom once the other four passengers had disembarked. He waved a thank you to the sailor, and wandered away into the depths of the mist with his companions.

* * *

Naruto had his hands in his pockets again, wandering along sullenly in the oppressive atmosphere. The group had been walking for an age almost, a good hour beyond their usual period of allocated walking time, when he froze. His eyes went wide, and his head jerked up to stare at a point a short distance away.

Sasuke and Sakura both started at the sudden odd movements, and Kakashi surreptitiously palmed a handful of shuriken from his hip pouch under the guise of putting his copy of Icha Icha away.

Tazuna was the one that spoilt the moment.

He froze a moment after his four protectors had, and squinted in the direction Naruto was looking at fearfully. Before anyone could stop him, Naruto especially, he uttered the words that sealed their fate.

"What's wrong?"

* * *

Naruto spun around instantly and grasped Tazuna's shirt collar in his right fist, dropping himself to the ground and pulling the old man with him. Kakashi reacted at the same time, forcing Sasuke and Sakura down as he too hit the dirt.

The air above the quintet split as a humongous blade the length of a man hummed overhead at waist height. The wake it left was so large the cowering ninjas actually felt a sharp, cold gust of air, as a vacuum was created then filled behind the weapon. Kakashi was first to react this time, jumping to his feet and uncovering his Sharingan eye in a blur. The sword impacted into a tree and stuck, thrumming malevolently as the impact sent tremors throughout both the trunk and the blade.

Naruto scrambled to his feet, his eyes wide in fear. He hadn't been this scared since… ever. All around him, Narutos were lying in various positions. One or two were even spread across the length of the impromptu battlefield, organs splayed like the grotesque scribbling of a madman. Everywhere he looked, he saw his own death, and the dead bodies of his teammates. Before he could stop himself, he looked at the sword and saw in unyielding clarity the missing-nin who would perch himself atop it in less than a minute. Momochi Zabuza was a man whose very eyes were colder than the coldest of winters. Naruto focussed too much on the man, the hundreds of future echoes of his entrance blurring over one another. A thousand teeth grinned in a single mouth that was both covered and uncovered as the paths of fate tried to determine if the man would tear off the bandages over his mouth or not. Naruto had never seen anything like it. He saw too much.

Sakura jumped a clear foot away from Naruto as he vomited. The blonde fell to his knees, a hand outstretched and heedless of his spilled bile to steady himself. He emptied his stomach and dry-heaved a few last pitiful times, his eyes teary and his breathing ragged.

The young kunoichi watched in disgust as Naruto picked himself up and wiped his mouth with the left sleeve of his jacket. She felt her face fall as he unzipped the jacket and let it fall to the ground to cover the evidence of his recent weakness. Her head whipped around at the sound of chuckling despite herself. Naruto didn't look up; instead he turned his face away and felt tears roll down his cheeks. Sasuke squared his jaw and looked towards the sword, but felt his face and bladder go slack at the sight that met him. Tazuna fell to the ground, his knees giving out on him.

* * *

Momochi Zabuza stood atop his huge sword, bandages covering his mouth and nose. His chuckling sounded like the rasping of stones, or the hoarse whispering breeze of a tomb's air. His killing intent saturated the very fog, and to Kakashi it felt like he was moving through syrup.

"You will all die if you protect this man. Give him to me, and I'll allow you to live for a few more minutes at least…"

Kakashi squinted in anger. Taunts were an effective psychological weapon, and unless he said something his young wards would panic. He was about to open his mouth to reply when Naruto's cracked and broken voice came from behind him, the whisper seeming impossibly loud.

"Don't fight him, sensei. He… We won't win. Don't ask me how I know, but we won't. Please? I don't want you to die."

Kakashi rankled at the sentence, but caught himself. Naruto had said he didn't want _Kakashi_ to die, not that he didn't want to die himself… What would prompt him to say that? Kakashi took a few steps towards Zabuza, and looked back over his shoulder at the four he would fight for.

"Don't worry. I won't let myself or my teammates die. Can you three stay here and protect Tazuna for me? If all else fails I'll buy enough time for you to escape with him before I catch up with you, okay?"

Kakashi returned his gaze to Zabuza, and glared before allowing his own killing intent to flare. It wasn't as powerful as Zabuza's, but it was enough to make a sufficient dent in the man's influence.

"Ho, I know who you are now… Sharingan Kakashi, the man who has copied over a thousand Ninjutsu. Are these three brats yours? They look like they'd entertain me for a while before I killed them…"

"Quiet. Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist… I honestly didn't expect this. Lets move away from the kids, hm?"

Zabuza chuckled once more, the three Genin and Tazuna all shivering visibly at the sensation it caused to creep up their spines. The two Jounin sprang away, becoming visible once more a fair distance away. Nobody had yet realised that the point they appeared was the exact spot Naruto had been staring at with such fear before the sword almost killed them.

* * *

Naruto was still seeing nothing but death. Every single future imaginable left him and his teammates dead upon the ground, and Tazuna executed. He didn't understand it. This wasn't meant to happen! He saw the immediate future, he saw a way out of things, he saw his friends and himself live, he didn't see anything but death It wasn't right at all. Here and there one echo (usually Tazuna) was left standing as the two-minute time limit was reached, and each time that happened there was usually a Zabuza echo advancing menacingly.

Meanwhile, Sasuke and Sakura looked on in abject fear at the fight- no, battle that was taking place in front of them. Kakashi and Zabuza were like demons, a flurry of evasions, replacements, clones and Ninjutsu firing off left right and centre. A Zabuza freshly impaled by a kunai burst into water before another Zabuza smashed his oversized sword through the skull (and torso) of the offending Kakashi, and laughed as the freshly-dead Jounin was replaced by a log that detonated a moment later thanks to the application of an exploding tag. The two Jounin parried back and forth for a few minutes, and finally landed on the surface of the river that ran parallel to the road. They stood twenty foot apart, and glared at each other, daring the other to begin another attack.

* * *

Naruto yelled in triumph, causing Sakura and Sasuke to spin around with kunai in their hands. The blonde boy had started giggling, and that soon turned into outright hysteria as he finally saw the correct solution to the future.

Tazuna made to slap the boy across the cheek to bring him back to the here-and-now, only to wave his hand through a sudden whirlwind of leaves. He and the two remaining Genin looked around in confusion, and finally saw Naruto standing on the riverside near Kakashi and Zabuza.

Kakashi swore as Naruto appeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Get back to the others, Naruto, now!" He spat, his voice low. He didn't take his eyes from Zabuza in case the missing-nin took the boy's arrival as an opportunity.

"Sensei, you remember my three likes?" Naruto whispered excitedly, drawing a kunai and striking a guard position.

"Ramen and plants?" Kakashi muttered, confused. "And that dumb comment about seeing the future, right?

"Yeah…" Naruto flashed a huge grin before setting his face in a determined grin. "I wasn't kidding."

* * *

Zabuza raised a shaven eyebrow at the pair. The elite copy-ninja had enlisted help from one of the children? This was priceless. He would enjoy gutting the pair of them.

"Oi," he began, only to cock his head, puzzled. It sounded like someone else had spoke as well, the dual voices of his and a higher-pitched yet somehow abused voice mixing in.

"What the hell was that?" He asked, again finding another voice mixed in. His eyes went wide as he finally realised what was happening. The young boy with the orange pants was copying him.

"What is this, some cheap parlour trick?" The pair said in concert.

"I don't see a Sharingan in your eyes like I do Kakashi there… How are you doing this? Reading my lips? No, that would leave you speaking a moment behind… Are you… reading my thoughts, then?" The two continued, Naruto's mouth slowly spreading into a dangerous, toothy grin as Zabuza paled and began sweating.

* * *

Kakashi was just as amazed. Naruto was matching Zabuza word-for-word, and if he hadn't known the blonde boy he might have been tempted to think he had the Sharingan as well. Pushing his stupor aside, he decided to get in on the act.

"My student," He began, only to raise an eyebrow at Naruto as the young boy copied his words as well. "Can see the future. Your future, Momochi Zabuza…"

"Is death." Naruto finished alone. Kakashi took the half-second of time offered by Zabuza's eyes opening wide in horror to start running through hand-seals. Zabuza joined a second too late, as with a cry of "Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" A thirty-foot long dragon made entirely out of water obscured Kakashi. A moment later, one burst from the water around Zabuza but was destroyed almost immediately as Kakashi's dragon "bit" through its throat. Zabuza had a moment to raise his arms in front of his face for defence before the huge mass of water crashed into him and sent him slamming into the trees on the opposite side of the river.

* * *

Kakashi smiled beneath his mask humourlessly, and stalked off to finish the fight once and for all. He knew he would have to talk to Naruto -again-, but he had more pressing matters to attend to. No matter how elite he was, that technique would have knocked Zabuza for six and Kakashi knew he only had a short amount of time before the missing-nin would recover fully.

* * *

Naruto fell on his backside and began crying with relief. The next two minutes, at least, seemed clear. He had saw a future echo where he went with Kakashi, found Zabuza, and saw a young Hunter-nin throw senbon into Zabuza's neck, killing him. The echo had finished soon afterwards, but Naruto was ecstatic. They had survived. Against all odds, against everything he had seen, it had worked out. He almost began crying with relief, until Sakura punched him in the head and knocked him out cold.

* * *

Kakashi returned a few minutes later, cocking an eyebrow at the unconscious boy laid over Tazuna's shoulder.

"He almost went insane, sensei…" Sakura mumbled, her cheeks staining a light pink with guilt.

"That's okay Sakura… I needed to have a talk with him once he had calmed down anyway. Tazuna-san, we have a short reprieve. I don't think Zabuza is dead, but if I'm right we have a small amount of time before he returns. Sasuke, Sakura, be dears and either carry or drag your teacher to our destination, would you?"

The pair of young Genin stammered in surprise, goggling and yelling in dismay when Kakashi raised his hand, re-concealed his Sharingan eye, and fell flat on his face in a dead faint.

Chakra exhaustion.


	8. Chapter 7: The Truth and the Bridge

**Ultimatum**

* * *

Hatake Kakashi's right eyelid fluttered a moment as it strove to open. The build-up of 'sleep' gumming his eye shut must have been at least a day old, he concluded, and finally with a greater effort than he expected, opened his eye and regained his sight of the world.

Above him was a simple wooden ceiling, bare of all decoration. To his right was an equally bare wall, behind his head another wall that held a window, and to his left laid his blonde-haired student. Uzumaki Naruto was laid in the same position as himself, on his back and straight as a die. The young ninja's mouth hung open, and the slight snores that came forth indicated he was asleep. Given the lack of light and the strange white noise across his vision, Kakashi concluded it was early morning or late night before shrugging to himself and closing his eye once more. He would have a few words with his student when he awoke later.

* * *

Kakashi awoke once more and heard the twittering of birds coming from outside the house. He looked to his left, finding it slightly easier to move his neck after the added rest, only to find the blonde child missing. He rolled his eye, and with some effort, managed to lift his right foot. He dropped it heavily to the floor, the limb making the wood sound out a "Thump" before raising his foot again.

He needn't have bothered, as Sakura practically burst through the door to his room. She looked panic-stricken, and visibly relaxed when she saw he was awake. She dropped to her knees next to his legs, and gave him a quick smile.

"Sasuke-kun and me carried you back," she beamed, "just like you asked. Tazuna-san carried Naruto. He isn't being as crazy as he was anymore…"

"Thank you Sakura, could you get Naruto to come to me in a few minutes please, I have a few things I need to say to him."

Sakura nodded eagerly, and got to her feet. As she left the room Kakashi mentally shook his head. He needed to get to the bottom of the mystery that was Uzumaki Naruto. He needed to know exactly what had happened during the fight with Momochi Zabuza.

* * *

Naruto stood in front of the door to the room he was sharing with Kakashi-sensei. He breathed deeply and tried to calm himself. He knew he was going to sound crazy. He had a vague idea of what happened to Ninjas who lost their minds while out on missions, and it wasn't pretty. The ninja left in charge of the mission usually decided the amount of mercy to be shown, and while this usually culminated in the 'mad nin' being brought back to Konoha and placed into a special ward of the hospital, he knew that because of his rather unique position, Kakashi might not be so lenient.

He steeled himself and set his jaw before reaching for the handle. He hesitated a moment, but shook his head. It wouldn't do to delay this more than was necessary. He grasped the handle and turned it, stepping through the portal to the destiny that (he knew) would take a lot more than two minutes to decide, and would be a lot more important than anything he had ever done previously.

* * *

Kakashi pushed himself up as best he could when the door opened and Naruto walked in. The boy closed the door and took the spot Sakura had earlier, kneeling beside his legs and nodding to his teacher once. The boy looked serious and grim, and if Kakashi's face could have been seen, he knew it would be almost a mirror image.

"So Naruto, tell me in full, from the very beginning."

Naruto nodded once more, and began reciting the tale.

"It all started six years ago, Kakashi-sensei. I had been out raiding some of the bins near my apartment for something to eat-"

"What?"

Naruto looked confused at his teacher's interruption, until it dawned on him Kakashi might not have much idea how he had lived.

"Bins, sensei. No shops would sell me food and the ones that _would_ made sure it was spoilt or was covered in dirt and couldn't be eaten. I had to raid bins to get food, and had to drink rainwater or from a stream because someone kept turning off the water supply to my apartment.

"I was raiding some of the bins, and I had just pulled out a half a loaf of stale bread when some villagers saw me. There were three of them, and when they saw me they started shouting and yelling. I got scared, and I ran off. Usually, that would be enough, but they chased me through the alleys and streets. I got lost, and I ran and ran… I… I'd started at the Ninja Academy a few months before then, and I tried to hide like Iruka-sensei had taught us all, but they found me all the time. I fell over, and they caught me."

Naruto took a shuddering breath, and lifted his black t-shirt up and over his head. It was then that Kakashi noted the lack of the blonde's orange jacket. He pondered the disappearance for a moment, as at no point since he had met the boy had he been without the jacket, even on hot days. On days when the temperature soared, Naruto just unzipped his jacket. He returned his mind to the situation at hand, and watched the large black markings of a seal fade into view on Naruto's stomach. He gazed at it carefully, and saw the slightly puckered scar that marred the boy's abdomen and broached the gap between two lines of the seal.

"They picked me up and held me up against a wall, and pinned me there with knives in my hands… They let go and I ended up hanging there, and then the one who hadn't picked me up stabbed me… it hurt a lot, Kakashi-sensei… I felt really weak, and almost passed out, but whenever I felt like passing out I'd wake up a bit more, and I wouldn't feel as weak, and then it would happen again…"

Kakashi's eye widened at the implication. If it was as he suspected, then the Kyuubi was healing Naruto. At no point had he noticed the blonde to have scars on his hands, and wounds like the boy suggested he had suffered would have left horrendous marks if they had even been halfway repairable at all. The Kyuubi must have been responding to the seppuku-like murder and healing Naruto whenever he was on the verge of slipping unconscious or into the embrace of death, waking him and giving him strength enough to survive. Kakashi shivered at the implications.

"An ANBU found me on the morning, I'd been able to watch the sun come up and it was pretty high in the sky by then… I was still bleeding, and the ANBU helped me down and took me to the hospital, but I passed out by then. When I woke up, I felt okay, but the Hokage told me I had been asleep for a few days and would have a scar. I left the hospital after some people had asked me questions, and then it happened. I saw the future."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. He nodded, and only grew more confused as Naruto completed his explanation. His mind boggled at the hundreds, or even thousands of futures that Naruto had simply ignored on a day-to-day basis, and after hearing the explanation of his morning rituals and the sight of his future echoes dying in various ways, Kakashi slumped to lay on his back. Naruto jumped up and started patting Kakashi's face, demanding his teacher look at him. Kakashi stopped Naruto before he cried for help, but thought for a few moments.

The boy who contained the Kyuubi no Yoko regularly saw himself fall to the hatred of the villagers, of how far they would go to injure him. He saw himself die every morning due to mistake after mistake. Kakashi looked at Naruto pointedly.

"These visions of the future, Naruto, do they always happen?"

"Always."

"Now?"

"Yes, but I'm ignoring them for the most part… If I focus hard enough I can stop seeing them, but its difficult sometimes. When I fought the two guys with the chain I saw what they would do, and I made a few mistakes and they got 'me', but I just followed the right path. When… When Zabuza appeared I saw so many times when we all died I didn't know what to do… I saw so many things happen all at once, I lost control and I threw up… I put my jacket over it, but Tazuna said he forgot to pick it up for me… I'll have to get a new one while we're here or in Konoha when we get back. I tried everything I could to see a way out of it, but it was only when you got Zabuza onto the water that everything made sense and I saw a way to win. That's why I told you, so you'd understand what I was doing and you could defeat him. And now Zabuza's dead and Tazuna's home, and we can leave, right?"

"How far can you see, exactly?" Kakashi asked after a moment, a frown of deep thought creasing his face.

"Two minutes at the most. I've tried really hard, but no matter what, its always two minutes. Sometimes less, if it's something easy to do, but two minutes is the cut-off point."

"I see… Naruto, tell me what I am about to say."

Naruto's eyebrows raised in surprise, but barely a heartbeat passed before he said "That's very good, Naruto. How did you know I wasn't going to say something else?"

"Well;" began Kakashi, only to hear the word in stereo as Naruto carried on. "That is an interesting skill indeed… You can stop it now, Naruto."

Naruto shrugged, and smirked a little.

"I can't see it harming much, Naruto," Kakashi continued, "but it does leave me in a strange position. It also raises interesting questions about things like your chakra control, and teaching you Jutsu. How do you manage?"

Naruto chuckled nervously, and rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. "I only see the future, Kakashi-sensei. I still need to practice things before I learn them; I just see the best results. If I don't see me getting it right within two minutes, I need to practise until I do see it and replicate the results enough so that I don't ever see it failing within the two minutes. Then I know I've got it down."

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully, and rubbed his mask-covered chin absently. Naruto seemed to be able to learn quicker than others, but not by much unless he had natural talent at the ability. He knew of the boy's failure to produce a normal Bunshin, and had a moment of horror as he realised how bad Naruto's control really was if he had been practising for over six years and saw no improvement.

Naruto watched his teacher for a few moments, wondering if he should have told Kakashi about the nightmares. He had decided against it because it didn't seem relevant, but he had a strange feeling that not telling him might not have been such a good idea after all. He put the feeling aside however. A twelve-year-old Ninja having nightmares was normal, wasn't it? All kids had them. He shouldn't trouble Kakashi with it and end up looking like a moron.

Kakashi fixed Naruto with a stare. "You will have to explain this to Sasuke and Sakura, you know? I'm not entirely sure of the ramifications of this, but it can only help us I think. You can only see it when it affects you, and only two minutes ahead. Assuming one or all of our deaths would affect you, you can see it, correct?"

Naruto nodded fervently. "Yes, but if you're more than two minutes away then I can't see it."

Kakashi nodded once, and gestured at the door lazily. "Go get Sakura and Sasuke, explain it to them, and then organise yourselves into watches."

"Zabuza's alive, isn't he?"

Kakashi eyed Naruto. "You don't need to see the future to tell that. The hunter-nin should have disposed of his body on the spot. He'll be back soon enough, so there's only one thing we can do; train."

Naruto nodded, and left the room. His expression was serious, and set in stone. He almost bumped into Inari as the young boy wandered into the hallway, but before the young boy could say anything, Naruto had flicked him in between the eyes.

"There are heroes, you're looking at one, and you know your dad was. Even Heroes fall at times, if the other heroes of the world don't stand up and help them. Go cry."

Inari's eyes almost popped out of his head, and as Naruto shouldered past him he fell to the floor. His mouth slack and his eyes tearing up as Naruto's words and explanation hit home, he crawled back into his bedroom and closed the door.

* * *

Sakura had taken Naruto's admission better than Sasuke. The boy had immediately denied Naruto's ability, and had challenged him to a fight. Naruto had rolled his eyes and agreed, knowing nothing less than a full demonstration would satisfy Sasuke. Sakura had, on the way out to the clearing around the house they currently stayed in (courtesy of Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, she reminded herself) simply asked Naruto a few pertinent questions. She had been satisfied, until Sasuke had began throwing kunai and shuriken like they were going out of fashion.

To his credit, Naruto had proven his theory correct. No matter where Sasuke threw his blades, Naruto dodged or jumped in between them. There had been a few moments where the baggier edges of Naruto's orange pants had been sliced by a passing kunai, but beyond that nothing had happened to injure Naruto. He even demonstrated further by copying every single motion the Uchiha made, along with every word Sakura said in his defence, until they were called for the evening meal.

Satisfied that his explanation had been accepted, Naruto climbed into his bed. Sasuke would wake him four hours from now for his turn at watch, and fell asleep without noticing that Kakashi had left the room.

* * *

Inari sat upon the roof of the house staring up at the night sky. Sasuke had told him to go to bed churlishly, and the young boy had ignored him. Now Kakashi appeared beside him as silently as a cat, and after the young boy explained the unprovoked words from Naruto, Kakashi grinned to himself.

"Naruto is a unique boy. He has not only been hated by every villager because of something he has never done, but he has kept very big secrets from every ninja since the day he was born. He may, with training and a lot of work, make his own dream come true. He was right to say that about heroes, Inari-kun. My Hero fell before my eyes a long time ago, but not for lack of other heroes around him. He fell so they might live and be heroes to many other people for the rest of their lives, and so Naruto could become a hero too." Kakashi ruffled the young boy's hair kindly, and hobbled back inside.

Inari sniffed a little, and stayed watching the sky for a few hours before he too returned to his bedroom and fell into a sleep haunted by the smiling face of his father.

* * *

Kakashi had just fallen to sleep when Naruto awoke with a noiseless scream, his eyes bulging wide. He clutched his chest with his right hand, and could barely breathe. He tumbled from his bed, landing on all fours. His chest was so tight!

His nightmare had been so different… so very different… He had been falling through the air, a ball of light in his hand, and then he had felt his chest erupt in pain that burned like lava. He had screamed as he was reminded of the gutting that had changed his life so irrevocably, but knew the pain was a thousand times worse. He had woken up then, an "I promise" in his own voice echoing dully around him before the pain had hit.

His body recovered before too long, his chest still aching with phantom pain. Only seconds after he had finished changing did a light rapping come on the door to his and Kakashi's room. He opened it and nodded to Sasuke once in greeting, then walked through the house and took up his position on the roof. If anyone came, he would know before intruders even knew themselves.

* * *

Morning came almost too soon, and with the help of some crutches Kakashi had followed his students outside with the promise of training. He explained the tree-climbing exercise with as much gusto as he could muster given the circumstances, and demonstrated. He wandered slowly back to the house, wondering how quickly it would take Naruto and Sasuke to learn the technique, after Sakura had managed it immediately?

Naruto had awoken on the forest floor the next morning, greeted by what appeared to be a young girl. As soon as he began talking to 'her' though, he grasped the "surprise" ending of their conversation. Although he was shocked for a moment, Naruto was more than used to things happening that threw him, and took it in his stride.

Naruto helped Haku pick herbs, ignored the unnecessarily flippant comment about Haku's gender, and returned to Tazuna's abode.

His body was fine, but he still remembered working well into the night trying to get his control down to a fine art. No matter how many times he had succeeded, he couldn't get every single echo to agree and, as a result, had tried countless times. The kunai Kakashi-sensei had given him still nestled in the topmost branches of the tree he had climbed constantly, and he had no intention of seeing the damned thing ever again.

* * *

For the next three days, the trio of Genin helped Tazuna and the few villagers brave enough to work on the bridge. Kakashi supervised, and made sure there were no attacks, although he needn't have bothered with Naruto's clones standing at every approach point for a mile. A group of Narutos passed by carrying a pile of thick planks of wood, and Kakashi just shook his head. Naruto was awfully quick to use the Kage Bunshin, and although it was useful in the extreme, Kakashi had to admit it was a bit onerous to see the boy use the same trick every time.

He had contemplated teaching his students a Jutsu, but three Genin using the same new technique against an elite ninja like Zabuza would have been a waste of time. There were no doubts in his mind that the 'hunter-nin' was in league with Zabuza, especially given Naruto's run-in with the strange boy in the forest. They could do no more than wait it out, he concluded, returning to the guise of reading his book.

* * *

The next morning, Naruto awoke late feeling slightly sore and very worn out. He didn't understand it, he'd only carried a few planks himself, and he had delegated the other tasks to his clones, but he felt like he'd done all the work single-handedly. He was glad for the addition of the Kyuubi's power to his own then, as the feeling quickly faded. He noticed Kakashi wasn't in bed, and decided that he and his companions must have been downstairs having breakfast. When he heard a scream, followed by Inari's shouting, he quickly concluded that that wasn't the case.

Naruto was about to run down the stairs to Tsunami and Inari when he caught sight of an echo being beaten terribly by a rough-looking thug with a club, and instead ran to a window. He slid it open as quietly as he dared, and pounced outside silently.

* * *

The bandit holding Tsunami didn't know what hit him. He never got chance to wonder about it later, either, as a full four inches of Konoha steel entered his brain at a thirty-five degree angle above the base of his neck. Naruto gritted his teeth in disgust as a surprisingly clear fluid oozed from the wound he had inflicted, tinged pink with the blood of a barely-nicked minor vein. The hostage-taker fell to the ground, stone dead, and Naruto flicked three shuriken into the face of the thug with the club. The man fell to the ground and died, breathless and blind, as the three small stars of metal found his eyes and Adams-apple. Inari and Tsunami ran to each other once the threat had gone, and turned to thank Naruto only to find him gone from the doorway.

* * *

Naruto arrived at the bridge too late, the battle already having started. Sakura was protecting Tazuna, Kakashi was battling Zabuza, and Sasuke was standing inside a large group of mirrors made of steaming ice. The echoes that had gone to help Sasuke looked to do the most good, so that was where he ran. Seeing none of the echoes outside doing any real good, Naruto jumped inside the dome of ice and landed next to Sasuke.

"Yo, Sasuke, I came to help!" he rushed to his teammate, only to have Sasuke fix him with a glare. Naruto was taken aback for a moment as he saw his comrade's irises flicker between black and red, but dismissed it.

"You didn't think to stay outside, moron? That hunter-nin is here and he's moving through the mirrors!"

Naruto opened his eyes wide in understanding, and straightened himself up. He looked around a moment, then jumped into the air and swung his fist blindly.

* * *

Sasuke cursed as Naruto's fist met Haku's mask, and sent the boy smashing through one of his own mirrors to the ground. A brace of kunai shortly followed as the masked boy clambered to his feet, and the sharp blades pinned him to a tree as surely as if he'd been tied there. His arms were still free, and he palmed a full set of senbon as Naruto began approaching him. Naruto stopped a few feet away, directly in front of him, and folded his arms. He was obviously trying to look imposing, but a too-short blonde boy wearing a torn black t-shirt and shredded orange pants isn't all that scary.

"Oy, Haku," Naruto shouted, earning a gasp of surprise from the masked boy, "Give up and we'll spare you and Zabuza."

Haku sneered behind his mask. How stupid did they think he was? He launched one handful of senbon, grabbing another handful as he threw the others. He launched volley after volley, only to grow more and more desperate as Naruto strode forward slowly, dodging each set of the sharp needles without missing a beat.

Sasuke was agog. He could see Naruto dodging each of the needles, in slow motion. He knew, even if he wasn't sure how, that he could copy the boy's movements. He could copy him perfectly. He glanced into a shard of rapidly melting ice mirror and grinned as he saw his birthright manifested. The Sharingan.

He returned to watching Naruto, and was both in awe and afraid of the way the boy inexorably advanced, only to smash his fist so hard into Haku's face the porcelain mask shattered instantly, and the boy was knocked unconscious.

* * *

Zabuza had, in the second match, come out much worse. He was bleeding from a score of wounds and his arms hung limply from his frame. Kakashi's nin-dogs held him down heavily, and the grey-haired teacher grasped his right hand in his left as he formed a Raikiri.

"Momochi Zabuza… are you prepared for death?"

Zabuza began chuckling, only to stop as Sasuke and Naruto appeared by their sensei's sides in a flurry of leaves each. He glowered at them, and sighed. Haku was either dead or too disabled to assist, and Zabuza was about to nod when a sound from behind him stayed his voice.

"Ho, I see you failed, 'Demon'… more like Baby. I was going to double-cross you after you killed the builder anyway, but with the way things look here I won't have to do a thing. And to think, I brought all these friends of mine to help."

Zabuza turned around as best he could, and through a huge mass of armed mercenaries saw the short and obnoxious Gato. The man leaned on his walking cane, and adjusted the placement of his dark glasses with the fingers of his broken hand. Oh, how he wished he had let Haku do more to the greasy little bastard when he had chance. Now he was screwed.

"Hatake Kakashi," Zabuza growled, turning back to the ninja. "You and I have no quarrel now. Release me."

Kakashi allowed his Raikiri to dissipate, and moved his arms to the side to hold back both Naruto and Sasuke. The nin-dogs holding Zabuza down dispersed in bursts of smoke, and the huge ninja rose to his full height as best he could while injured. He turned to face the mass of mercenaries in front of him, and was about to charge them when Haku materialised in front of him.

Zabuza grinned behind his face bandages at his own student's arrival, and chuckled his satisfaction. "You, Gato, are a dead man." Zabuza said evenly, his voice sounding like gravel flowing over itself. Haku's eyes burned with anger, and the young boy launched himself forward faster than even Naruto and Sasuke had seen.

At seemingly random points throughout the mob, severed limbs began to arc through the air and land wetly upon distant neighbours. Men screamed, only to have their cries abruptly cut short in gurgles of pain, or unnatural silence as their ability to scream, or do much of anything in protest, was removed from them. Zabuza ran forwards, jumping through and over the crowd towards Gato. Where anyone attempted to stop his advance, they were either cut down by Haku's violence, or they were kicked so forcefully by Zabuza himself they careened over the sides of the bridge to the river below. Gato tried to run as Zabuza approached, but found his exit blocked by a wall of ice.

He was cornered by Zabuza and Haku, and met his death like he had ran his life; cowering and soiling himself in terror as people with a better strength than money and cruelty exacted vengeance.

* * *

Kakashi was about to run forward and apprehend Zabuza and Haku when he was pulled backwards by Naruto. Kakashi looked at his blonde student harshly, but Naruto just shook his head. Their enemies made best their escape, just as a throng of villagers with Inari at the helm came running to the bridge. All were armed, but after seeing the immediate danger had gone along with the death of their oppressor, the incensed towns-people soon downed their weapons and picked up tools.


	9. Chapter 8: The Training and the Exams

**An Opportunity Ignored**

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto took one last look over his shoulder, and waved to Tazuna and his family before jogging to catch up with his teammates. Hatake Kakashi, his Jounin-sensei rolled his visible eye at the small delay, and then took out his ubiquitous orange-covered copy of Icha Icha. The older ninja was still annoyed with Naruto and his newly revealed 'power'. He cast his mind back to the rather stern lecture he had given the blonde youth, less than a week ago.

* * *

_Kakashi was about to run forward and apprehend Zabuza and Haku when he was pulled backwards by Naruto. Kakashi looked at his blonde student harshly, but Naruto just shook his head. Their enemies made best their escape, just as a throng of villagers with Inari at the helm came running to the bridge. All were armed, but after seeing the immediate danger had gone along with the death of their oppressor, the incensed towns-people soon downed their weapons and picked up tools._

_Kakashi set Sakura and Sasuke to work assisting the locals, and then dragged Naruto off into a cluster of nearby trees with fire in his eye. Naruto allowed himself to be dragged, and once his mentor had stopped in a clearing some way from the bridge, he stuffed his hands in his pockets petulantly and began talking._

"_Kakashi-sensei, you're going to ask why I stopped you from killing Zabuza, aren't you?" It sounded less like a question, and more like resignation to a fate._

_Kakashi simply nodded, and folded his arms as he waited for his student's explanation._

_Naruto sighed, and then began. "When Zabuza and Haku were separated we had a chance of taking them. Together? You saw yourself how they massacred all those hired thugs, and they were both injured. They fought too well together for us to stand a chance. The moment they began killing, I saw nothing around but the bodies of me, you, Sasuke and Sakura. They have fought together for years; know each other's minds and urges. Team Seven know nothing about one another. I know more about the great and mighty damned Uchiha, the coldest and most unemotional attention-seeking windbag I've ever met than I do my own Instructor. We weren't ready, and we'd all be dead if I'd let you move against Zabuza again. End of story."_

"_Know this, Uzumaki Naruto," Kakashi growled as he unfolded his arms and pointed a finger at his student's face. "I will not tolerate you doing such a thing ever again. I don't care what the perceived outcome was, you aided two high profile and extremely dangerous criminals escape justice. I'll let it slide this once, but remember one thing; If you trust a gift like yours too much, you'll soon only be an arrogant fop. You'll be no better than an arrogant holder of a bloodline. You'll not risk anything that you can't see resolving within the time you can foretell, and you will be a worse ninja for it. Sometimes self-sacrifice is necessary. Sometimes you have to hide your strength until reinforcements arrive so you can help take the enemy down. Now, go and help with the bridge."_

_Naruto nodded, and left the way he and Kakashi had come. Kakashi waited until Naruto was far away enough, and in a fit of rage demolished a tree with a Raikiri._

* * *

The trip back to Konoha was a lot less eventful than the one to Wave Country. Naruto and Sasuke sparred verbally, Sakura shouted at Naruto for annoying Sasuke, Kakashi shouted at all three for annoying him, and Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi yelled at Naruto for juggling kunai again. Eventually, the forest around the quartet grew thicker and the atmosphere changed from foreboding to pleasant. The sunshine grew stronger and the temperature rose, and along with it so did the spirits of the three children and their mentor.

When the gates of Konoha became visible in the distance, the three young Genin began an impromptu race home. Kakashi chuckled to himself and sauntered along the road. Let them have their fun, he thought, because soon that would be over.

The Chuunin exams were being held in Konoha in a matter of weeks.

* * *

"What did you say, sensei?" Naruto asked, mouth wide. He had heard well enough, and he most definitely already knew what Kakashi had said, but pantomiming allowed him some semblance of normality amongst his fellow Genin. Sasuke and Sakura may already know about his 'gift', but sometimes no matter what, some things just needed to be said again.

"I said, the Chuunin exams are being held in just over a fortnight from now."

"And?" Naruto prompted, scowling at his teacher.

"You three will not be entering." Kakashi smiled behind his mask, the cloth stretching across his face. "I have decided you all are not ready for it. You need, as Naruto quite rightly pointed out back in Wave Country, more experience of fighting together as you know nothing at all about each other or me. Such a thing is a great advantage for a team, and so for the next seven months we shall be working on our teamwork, techniques and tactics. The three T's of the Ninja world… Think of them as the three R's and you won't go far wrong."

"But Sensei," Sakura began, only to be interrupted by Naruto.

"We're not ready by a long shot, and we all need to be in with a chance of becoming Chuunin, not just one of us, or else we'll all fail."

Sakura hung her head in defeat, and Sasuke visibly bristled at the thought of not being strong enough. Kakashi took in all of his students' reactions, unsurprised at Naruto's calm acceptance. The boy was more mature than Kakashi gave him credit for, he realised.

"I will be working with all of you in turn, two days a week, and then we'll all have one day a week where we work together as a team. We will all meet at Training Ground Seven at five in the morning; perform two D-rank missions or one in-village C-rank. After that, you're free for personal training. Monday and Thursday are the days I will train Sasuke, Tuesday and Friday Sakura, and finally Wednesday and Saturday for Naruto. Sunday is a full day of D-ranks and in-village C-ranks, along with other fun things like helping me with my daily routine, so you get to learn about me and I about you. Clear?"

The three Genin nodded, and Kakashi dismissed them for the day. Tomorrow was Tuesday, and Kakashi began preparing himself for a long day of questions from the nosiest kunoichi he had ever met while trying to get some actually beneficial training into Sakura. He disappeared in a flurry of leaves, and the only thing remaining of him was a deep and heavy sigh in the air that spoke of pure resignation.

* * *

Naruto hopped up onto his kitchen worktop and kicked his heels against the door of the cupboard below him. He smirked at the thought of Sakura trying to keep up with Kakashi on a day of hard training then hung his head. He had revealed his secret at last. He knew Kakashi would mention it to the Sandaime Hokage. It was inevitable. The question was, when would the Hokage come and do something about the situation? Naruto sighed and hung his head farther, his chin brushing his sternum. Later, he would deal with it all.

Naruto jumped down from the work surface after a few moments of silent contemplation, and began tending to the plants he had left alone for over a month.

* * *

Haruno Sakura was worn out. She had been up since five in the morning and had already completed two daylong assignments before lunchtime. True, she had help in the form of her two male teammates and her teacher, but even so she thought the workload insane and she hadn't even had a meal yet.

"Sakura?"

Sakura groaned at the sound of Kakashi-sensei's voice. For all he sounded concerned, Sakura knew he wouldn't let her off with anything. Kakashi had evidently allowed Naruto and Sasuke to go for lunch on their own, as they were nowhere in sight. Sakura nodded her head and gulped down a few extra breaths.

"Hai, Sensei?"

"Lets get food, hm?"

Sakura's eyebrows rose in faint surprise before she mastered her expression and nodded once more. She fell into step behind her lazy teacher as he slouched off. She let him guide her, not really taking notice of her surroundings until Kakashi stopped her and pointed at a rather nondescript doorway and said "We're here."

She had looked at Kakashi quizzically until he slapped his forehead in over exaggerated realisation. "I didn't tell any of you where I lived, did I?"

Sakura chuckled to herself and answered a quick negative before allowing herself to be shown in by her teacher. Kakashi slipped off his sandals and took off his Jounin flak-vest before wandering into his home. Sakura followed suit, making sure to leave her own sandals by the door also. She looked around at Kakashi's home, surprised by the amount of random and strange collections of objects. On a wall there were several paintings of Konoha, on a shelf nearby a glass container holding broken shards of metal and a rather ornate katana hilt, newspaper clippings took up a coffee table beside a rather worn-looking armchair, a pair of knitting needles and a ball of wool lay on another shelf, and other knickknacks lay strewn across a multitude of surfaces and spaces. Kakashi had made his way into the adjoining kitchen of his home, and watched in faint amusement at Sakura's unabashed awe at the state of his living room.

"I have a lot of hobbies." He chuckled, and Sakura whirled around. She had a momentary look of embarrassment upon her face before her mouth fell open and she gawked at Kakashi.

He had pulled his mask down.

* * *

"Now, Sakura, you have to tell me a few things about yourself." Kakashi said, his fingers absently working the pair of knitting needles and a ball of dark purple wool. Sakura had shook her head in disbelief when her sensei said he had only recently started knitting, and shook her head more when he had picked up the needles and began working with some decent skill at making the sleeve of a pullover for his "off days". Sakura swallowed dryly, her tongue suddenly feeling much too big for her mouth.

"Well, lets see…"

"Okay, lets do this another way. My name is Hatake Kakashi, Jounin of Konoha. I like reading Icha Icha, training my first Genin team, and finding new hobbies. My current hobbies include knitting, annoying Maito Gai, and reading about the history of the Grass Country. I dislike Sushi and people who would judge me for my hobbies."

Sakura smiled and began her own miniature speech. "My name is Haruno Sakura, Genin of Konoha. I like reading and, umm… Sasuke-kun. My hobbies are annoying Ino-pig when she's around, and I dislike Naruto's attitude when he's being obnoxious. I don't like Sushi either…"

"That's good, Sakura. Now we know a little about one another we didn't before," Kakashi smiled, the needles in his hands clacking together gently. "Now, your training." Kakashi sighed heavily, and his knitting slowed to a crawl before he nodded to himself and his speed picked up once more. "Your chakra control is above average for a girl your age, however that isn't saying much. Your chakra reserves are, to be honest, frighteningly low, and so far you haven't shown any ability with any techniques at all, let alone Jutsu. I was given your Academy Grades as a guideline, and I'm afraid that for all your book-smarts and high grades in theory and written tests, your practical ability is very poor. With what I have planned, you ought to be at Sasuke's level of endurance and a challenge for him in sparring before the next Chuunin exam, even with the work I will be doing with him. It is vital, however you keep up your studies away from these days with me or else you will not improve much at all. Is that understood?"

Sakura nodded grimly already able to feel the gruelling work ahead of her as she contemplated the already huge gap between her and Sasuke in terms of ability and strength. Kakashi finished ticking his needles together, set them aside, and grabbed onto Sakura's hand while he formed a one-handed seal with his free hand. "Lets begin."

* * *

Sakura promptly fell to her knees and vomited into the grass beneath her when she and Kakashi appeared at Training Ground Seven in a whirlwind of leaves a moment later. Kakashi looked on neutrally as Sakura finished emptying her stomach, and he sighed.

"I should have warned you, I suppose? Too late now, I think… At least now you won't hurl while training. When you're ready, get up and run precisely one mile in any direction, and then one mile back. If you can't handle that, it is a good place to start as any. Once you're done with that, I want sit-ups and push-ups, at least thirty of each. Get going."

Kakashi wandered past his dry-heaving student and sat upon a large boulder before taking out his orange-sleeved book and picking up where he left off.

Kakashi and Sakura continued in this vein for some time. Kakashi would yell an instruction, Sakura would do it, dry-heave some more, and Kakashi would then give her more to do. It didn't bode well for the future.

* * *

Sasuke and Naruto appeared at Training Ground Seven at ten to five in swirls of leaves. Sakura was already there, propped up against a boulder and asleep. Sasuke showed an uncharacteristic burst of concern and shook her awake while Naruto walked over to the three training logs and hopped up onto the top of the middle one.

Sakura looked terrible, but when Kakashi arrived nobody questioned him or the training. Kakashi was an elite Jounin, an ex-ANBU Captain of all things, so the training he was sure to give each of them could be expected to be as hard as whatever Sakura was going through, if not worse.

The two D-rank missions that morning took longer than the previous day due to her exhaustion, but Kakashi was pleased to see that after a group lunch Sakura perked up considerably before heading off to wear herself out again at the training ground once more. Naruto was strangely subdued about his one-on-one training, until Kakashi was struck by the realisation the Naruto probably knew about his own failings and was trying to think of how he would be improving himself.

Kakashi grabbed Naruto's arm and dragged him during a Shunshin to Konoha's Ninja Library. Naruto stumbled a little when Kakashi ceased moving, but he didn't show anything like Sakura's level of disorientation. Naruto sighed as the penny dropped that he would be doing a lot of very important reading, and began traipsing up the steps to the entrance before Kakashi had time to say anything.

"Naruto? Wait a moment. You don't know what I want you to read." Kakashi admonished, following his student up the steps when Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

"Everything, sensei. This is going to take me more than six months, you know?" Naruto sounded depressed at the prospect of spending such a long time in the darkened halls of knowledge until Kakashi began chuckling.

"No, Naruto, a matter of weeks. How much of the Kage Bunshin Jutsu did you read?"

Naruto's eyes widened in understanding, followed by a wide and devious grin that showed just enough of his ever so slightly enlarged canine teeth to be disturbing. "I gotcha, Kakashi-sensei. Twenty-nine clones, one section at a time, and the same at home after closing times with books on loan. If I get one book finished per clone, per night, it'll take me about a month for all the things I'm allowed to look at as a Genin, right?"

Kakashi chuckled and nodded. "Correct, Naruto. However, I want you to make thirty clones. You and I will be having a chat while 'you' read. After this, twenty-nine will be sufficient."

Naruto bounded up the steps with new enthusiasm, and once inside the Library attacked the History section with much gusto. He conjured thirty clones that at once grabbed a random book each and sat at reading tables. The original Naruto and Kakashi sat at a table aside from the clones and sat in silence for a few moments, before Naruto spoke.

"So Sensei, let's see if I got this right. Hatake Kakashi, ex-ANBU Captain, trained from the age of twelve by the Yondaime Hokage, despite already being a Chuunin. Has many hobbies including knitting of all things, and you don't like some other Jounin called Maito Gai. Close?"

Kakashi shrugged. "On the money, Naruto. I'm guessing you can still only see two minutes into the future?"

"Yep… I've been trying, I really have, but I can't get it past that. And yes, it is hard to make out which Echo is me and which isn't but it is getting a little easier to tell the difference."

"I see."

"I'm not entirely sure that being apathetic while you watch yourself choking to death on the floor is a good trait in Psychological terms, though..." Naruto mumbled, almost nonchalantly.

Kakashi's eye widened in shock as he processed that last comment, as it meant that Naruto watched himself dying almost constantly, and dismissed it as easily as someone might ignore a beggar. Kakashi found himself thinking of both his student's mental fortitude, and when he could organise an extra psychological evaluation for the blonde boy, but Naruto just shrugged at him. "Its fine, Kakashi-sensei. It hasn't affected me in the last six years, so I doubt it'll affect me anytime soon."

Kakashi nodded once, still wary, and began humming a small tune. Naruto rolled his eyes and deemed the conversation done. He picked a clone at random, left the table and went to it. The clone dispersed and dropped the book it had been reading right into Naruto's waiting hand, and with a slight flutter of his eyelids as he assimilated the information, Naruto continued reading where, to all intents and purposes, he had left off.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto awoke the next morning to find he couldn't see. He jerked upright in bed only to have his vision suddenly restored to him as the book that had been covering his face fell and landed, spine-first, on his crotch.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto awoke five minutes later, and went about his morning ritual bow-legged. It seemed oddly appropriate it was just his luck to have gotten the biggest and thickest history book, despite his countless clones. Remembering the previous night, he brought thirty clones into existence and set them reading each of the scattered books around his home before he left for Training Ground Seven.

* * *

It was three in the afternoon, and Uchiha Sasuke and Hatake Kakashi stood alone in Training Ground Eighteen. They had left Naruto to wander off to the Library less than an hour ago, and a still-haggard looking Sakura to beat herself stupid at Training Ground Seven. Kakashi stood with his hands in his pockets, and Sasuke mirrored him.

"What do you want from these sessions, Sasuke?" Kakashi spoke, more to himself than to his student, but Sasuke replied regardless.

"I want to become powerful enough to kill my brother."

Kakashi's eye narrowed almost imperceptibly. "Revenge is a past-time, not a solution. You may well kill your brother, avenge yourself and your clan, but once that is done you'll be left with nothing but enough power to kill your brother again. You won't feel fulfilled, and you won't have anything to fall back upon. If you sacrifice friendship for power, you'll end up alone and truly will be the Last Uchiha."

"I don't care for friends. I want to avenge my clan, Kakashi."

"Revenge is for fools, Sasuke. I know it is."

"What do you know? I need to kill my brother, I need to avenge my clan, and I need to get stro-"

Sasuke found himself a clear foot from the floor, his shirt held in Kakashi's fist. The grey-haired Jounin had leapt forward and picked up the boy within the blink of an eye.

"You see my Sharingan, boy?" Kakashi growled, pulling his hitai-ite up to uncover the eye and the long scar that bisected his eyelids. "I was not born with this, that is obvious. I lost my eye when I was twelve, your age, because I was exactly like you. I was far too caught up in my own superiority to know better, and I abandoned my friends to further my mission. The only decent damned Uchiha I knew gave me his Sharingan eye as a 'Present' when he was crushed to death because of my attitude and lack of foresight. Do you know what I do from four in the morning onwards? I stand by the Memorial Stone and read the names of every friend I have had who I have seen die since I became a Ninja."

"How does that-"

"SILENCE!" Kakashi yelled into Sasuke's face, raising the boy higher still. "You will be joining me at four in the morning. EVERY morning. That stone is reserved for Ninja who did great things and aided Konoha. Men and women whose last breathes were spent aiding Konoha, whose selfless acts define our village. Do you know how many Uchihas are there? Do you?"

"No."

"One. Uchiha Obito. Obito-kun, to the man who was my Jounin-sensei and to a girl named Rin who was the most talented medical Nin at her age. She was in line to be another Tsunade, assuming you know who she is. Do you know what I called him?"

Sasuke shook his head a negative, eyes wide at the anger in Kakashi's voice.

"Dobe. Dead last. Teme. Ass. Moron. Idiot. Baka. Fool. Stupid Uchiha. All of those and more, and only once did I call him Obito. When he was being crushed to death, and only his desire to help Rin and I kept him alive. I killed the men who had engineered the trap that killed him. I felt nothing but apathy, and I didn't know what else to do. Revenge solves nothing at all."

Kakashi hung his head and put Sasuke down on the ground again. Kakashi stepped away, and after a moment resumed his bored appraisal of the raven-haired boy. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

"I will avenge my clan, Kakashi. I will do it, no matter what."

Kakashi sighed and folded his arms. "Fine. You need work on your chakra control and your list of Jutsu is fairly small. You need more techniques than just those that were practised by your clan, but you also need to forget this stupid ambition of murder."

Sasuke nodded, and after a few small talks about control exercises and technique theory, he and Kakashi began working on improving Sasuke's Jutsu.

* * *

For a little over five weeks, this routine continued. On Sundays, the three Genin would assist Kakashi with weeding the area around the Memorial Stone, helped carry shopping, completed extra D-rank missions and sparred together. On a Monday Kakashi stopped his three students before they left for their 'studies'. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto all looked at Kakashi quizzically until he asked a question that would change their lives forever;

"Would you three like to go and see the Chuunin Exam Finals on Wednesday?"


	10. Chapter 9: The Power of the Kyuubi

**The Morning Before**

* * *

Naruto was sat atop the middle stump again, his nose buried in a book on sleight of hand and other "Magic". True to his word, Naruto had followed Kakashi's instructions and had been steadily working his way through Konoha's Ninja Library from day one of the new training regime. He had finished the History section within the first week, and had been working on all sorts of subjects since. After the History section had been the Academy Student's section. After that had been a section devoted to both Chakra Theory and a small list of Genin and low-Chuunin level techniques on tracking and evasion, and then a section given over entirely to Seal theorem and notes. Naruto had spent a fortnight on the last section trying to gain some sort of insight into his own Seal, but had so far found nothing even remotely linking to an element used in the Yondaime's Seal. After that, he had raced through a section on language, mathematics and science in the hope of getting onto more interesting sections only to find the workings of "science" and non-Ninjutsu based elemental manipulation to his liking. From that, he had left two extra clones working on more advanced sections of the subject while continuing with his revision.

Those two clones had slowly filled his mind along with the work of the others, and some research into traditional explosives like those used in fireworks led to the subject of "Magic" and a whole host of tricks and abilities a non-ninja could use to fool people close up and from a distance. Pranks, that most forbidden of vices while he had been in Wave Country, had suddenly seemed like fun again. Kakashi had fell victim to several, and Sasuke had fallen for even more. Now, Sasuke turned up to the daily meetings of Team Seven with his Sharingan activated for safety. Not that it helped sometimes, of course.

The Chuunin Exam Finals were due to begin later in the day, Naruto knew, and Kakashi had made the three Genin under his command perform only one D-rank mission before letting them go about their business for the day. Naruto had simply sat on the stump and began reading, knowing that all of the clones he had been making had not only been improving his knowledge, but his chakra control as well.

Kakashi had said thirty clones. He didn't say how many groups of thirty there could be.

As of right now, Naruto knew, there were thirty Narutos sat in his apartment reading a large amount of books on Chakra, Seals and Tactics. There were ten in the Ninja Library reading scrolls on techniques. Each time one finished, it dismissed itself. The nine remaining would conjure one more to replace the lost, and the thirty Narutos hidden at Training Ground Forty-One would blink as the information entered their heads and they began practising the technique.

Naruto knew it was cheating, slightly, but all the techniques were fairly useless at the moment. Only the tracking Jutsu seemed useful, and that was only because Team Seven seemed to get the mission to look for that damned cat Tora every week.

Naruto sat upright suddenly as his ears picked up the sound of a twig breaking. A young girl wandered towards him slowly, her head hung in embarrassment. Naruto's mind worked frantically for a moment as he tried to recall the girl's name, and then it clicked.

"Hyuuga Hinata?"

Hinata looked fairly roughed-up still, even though it was obvious she was well enough to be up and about. Her left arm hung in a sling, she had a strange set of small crescent-moon-shaped scars on her right cheek, and her right leg had a still-noticeable limp. Despite this, she was smiling softly and she pressed her index fingertips together nervously.

"O-Ohayo Naruto-kun." She replied. "How are you?"

Naruto smiled back, and closed his book with a snap. "I'm pretty good thanks Hinata. Are you okay? You, umm… look like you've had a bad fight?"

Hinata's cheeks stained pink, and she bit her lip before answering. "The Chuunin Exam had too many applicants at the end of the first parts last month. We had some preliminary matches and I lost to my cousin, Neji."

Naruto's eyes widened visibly. "You were in the Chuunin exams?"

"Hai, Naruto-kun… Kurenai-sensei said she thought my team was ready but… but I let them down."

Naruto hopped down from the stump and patted the top of her head. Hinata went bright red and her eyes widened in surprise.

"N-N-Naruto-kun, what are you doing?"

"I'm sorry Hinata-chan, but I have to say goodbye to you."

"W-Why?"

"Because you're about to break the twig."

* * *

Naruto chuckled as the Echoes of both himself and Hinata disappeared abruptly to the noise of a twig snapping. He snapped his book closed and hopped down from the stump he was sat on and turned towards Hinata.

"Ohayo Hinata!" He yelled to the girl as she exited the tree line. She waved shyly, her cheeks a light pink.

"Ohayo, Naruto-kun" she replied, sidling up to a tree and trying as best she could to hide behind it without obscuring herself.

"I heard about your fight with Neji. I'm sorry you lost. I bet you gave a damned good match, though?"

Hinata blushed darker, and her eyes lowered to look at her feet. "No… I don't thi-"

"A real good match. I heard from Ino that you had Neji on the ropes at one point until he said something about a bird." It was a lie. Naruto hadn't spoken to Ino in months, but Sakura had mentioned the blonde girls' participation in the Chuunin Exam. Add in the Echo of Hinata explaining what Neji had said and done to her, and the lie was easily created.

Hinata nodded sadly, and pressed her index fingers together again. She looked up in shock as Naruto put a hand on her right shoulder and smiled gently. "Don't worry about it, Hinata, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I wish I could have taken part in the Exams, but I knew I wasn't ready for it. You went for it and got an opponent who knew your fighting style and who meant something to you. I assume you like your cousin?"

Hinata nodded quickly.

"So it wasn't any fault of yours. I'd probably have given up if I had to fight you, Sakura or Shikamaru. You and Sakura are way too strong for me, and Shikamaru would probably make me knock myself out or something. You went ahead and fought someone you cared for, and that makes you a really strong person."

Hinata blushed furiously and felt herself swooning. She blinked back the darkness that was encroaching on her vision and forced herself to concentrate on what Naruto was saying.

"- You be watching the Finals later?"

Hinata blinked, uncomprehending until her mind sped up and it finally clicked. "Yes, I will."

"Good. I'm going with my team later, so maybe I'll see you there." Naruto smiled once more, and patted her shoulder once. "I'll see you later, Hinata."

Hinata didn't have time to say anything in reply as Naruto hopped back from her, winked cheekily and disappeared in a miniature tornado of leaves.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto lay upon the roof of his apartment building. He had dismissed his clones early after most of them had finished their 'chores', but having had so many memories flood into his brain at once had given him a migraine. He lay in the warm sun with a hand over his eyes in his now-usual attire of his baggy orange sweatpants and a loose black t-shirt. His kunai holster and equipment pouch were laid beside him, the bandages that accompanied the former still tied around his right thigh.

Naruto didn't quite understand it. Ever since Kakashi had had him reading, his eyes were feeling more and more sore every time he dismissed his clones. He supposed it was the strain of reading almost constantly, but he thought only the knowledge was meant to be passed on when a clone was either destroyed or dispersed, not the fatigue and aches and pains associated. It would explain the soreness he had felt whenever he had a small army of clones assist in manual labour work on the occasional D-rank missions to replant rice paddies, but Kakashi hadn't mentioned anything about it, so he wasn't sure.

And so Naruto lay, concentrating only on the empty blackness that met his eyes and trying hard to ignore the random bursts of colour that spread across his peripheral vision every now and again. He shrank in on himself, and the strange fatigue from his shadow clones coupled with the warmth of the sun led him gently to sleep.

* * *

Naruto awoke a few hours later to find the sun slightly past the zenith. He swore and, after grabbing his holster and pouch, ran down the wall of the building and into his apartment. He flip-flopped from the ceiling and landed running, daring a glance at the clock on the wall of his kitchen before cursing again, donning his kit, and leaping out of the kitchen window.

He bounded as fast as he could to the arena, noting the lack of people until he remembered the Exam Finals were a public event. It was just as the arena itself came into view that he noticed the pall of dust rising gently. He stopped, confused, only to launch himself forward even faster when he heard the sounds of screaming.

Naruto made his way through the inner halls of the arena to the public boxes. He charged out into the rows of seats and had to hold back a surge of bile as his still-aching eyes drank in the scene.

Hundreds of people sat dead in their seats. Ninja lay sprawled where they had fallen, and severed limbs decorated the ground of the arena below like so many pieces of grisly confetti. Naruto swallowed hard, and looked for any sign of movement. He focussed quickly on a hand that still twitched, blood coating the backs of the fingers, in the next stand. He leaped over the dividing wall, ran along the handrail and dropped into the box reserved for the leaders and fellow members of Genin taking part in the Exam.

Naruto knelt beside the twitching hand, only to find its owner a good three metres away. When he found her, he lost the battle with his body and lost control of his stomach.

Hyuuga Hinata was lying in three bloody, roughly hewn pieces, and her left leg was a mush of blood, tissue, bone fragments, and blood-soaked grit.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto's eyes flew open in horror a moment before he felt power unlike anything he had ever felt before flood his veins.

His migraine disappeared, his sight became clearer than it had ever been, he began to hear and smell things that he had never noticed before, and he felt his lips become damp. He could taste salt and copper, and he wondered where the power had come from until, a moment later, he remembered the dream.

He was furious at the events he had seen.

He was also completely shocked when a burst of chakra from his own body demolished the roof around him and let him fall through into the highest apartment of the building.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi, like a few people who were old enough to remember the coming of the Kyuubi, suddenly stopped what he was doing and looked to the west. The raw evil of the chakra and killing intent that was being released was phenomenal, and he knew something bad must have happened to Naruto. He didn't bother replacing the cloth mask that should have covered his face, nor did he care that in his haste to uncover his Sharingan he had ripped his hitai-ite fully from his head. He ran from his home and took to the rooftops with a burst of chakra, and nodded a quick acknowledgement of assistance to every single one of the eleven ANBU and Jounin who joined him in the forty seconds it took him to reach Naruto's apartment building.

* * *

Naruto snarled loudly, blood from his punctured bottom lip spraying forth with a small spray of spittle. He was foaming at the mouth in anger, the bubbles a strange pink colour because of the sanguine fluid that even now was staining his over enlarged canines. His eyes had turned a dark red the colour of drying blood, and his fingernails had sharpened and grown into claws. He roared in anguish and leapt straight upwards through the hole he had just created in the apartment building, and began racing towards the arena. He dodged, kicked or punched those few who got in his way aside, and spared a glance behind him at the many ninja that followed him. He snarled once more and left them behind in an extra burst of speed.

* * *

Kakashi saw his student heading west and stopped dead in his tracks. Before any of the ninja with him could question his actions, he had disappeared in a flurry of leaves.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto roared to himself as he concluded he wasn't fast enough. He was about to put in an extra effort and another burst of chakra to reach the arena faster when a fist smashed him in the face. He felt three of his teeth loosen and break from his gums, and his lip burst. He saw stars, then clouds of green, pink, and idiot-flashes of purple lightning before his vision darkened. His momentum carried his body forward even after his head had been stopped, and in a superb somersault he was thrown up and over to land on his face.

* * *

Kakashi winced at the pain in his right hand, but not so much as he did when he heard the wet crack of Naruto's nose breaking as he hit the roof of the building Kakashi had Shunshin'd to in order to head off his student 'at the pass'.

Kakashi dropped to his knees and let out a huge sigh of relief as the horrible red chakra surrounding Naruto's body faded away within an instant. There would be all hell to explain to villagers and the Council, but Naruto had been stopped before he could cause too much damage.

* * *

Naruto came around and felt like hell. His face ached horribly, and he had trouble moving his arms. He could raise them a few inches, but then they would stop moving. His vision returned, although he could only see out of his left eye, and he noticed the thick shackles that bound him to the metal guardrails of a hospital bed. He tried to call for a nurse or doctor, but his lips refused to form the proper shapes and his tongue slipped pathetically past missing teeth.

A few moments' later, due to the rather pained groans and random slurred words Naruto could string together, the Third Hokage of Konoha entered the room flanked by four ANBU members in their body-length sackcloth habits and their nearly featureless white and red masks.

Naruto tried to look confused past his injuries, and wished he knew what was happening, or rather what was going to happen, but he couldn't…

He couldn't see what was going to happen.

Naruto began panicking. The four ANBU immediately drew their wakazashi blades from the depths of their robes and took up defensive positions around the Sandaime before he waved a hand at them to step down.

Naruto's frantic efforts at struggling soon wore him out and he lay in bed, panting heavily. The Third Hokage gazed at him seriously, and after a few seconds hung his head and sighed.

"Naruto? Are you aware of what you did today?"

Naruto shook his head, his voice having left him in confusion.

"You drew upon the power of the Kyuubi, Naruto. You drew upon it in vast quantities. You also injured five ANBU members in your… frenzy to reach wherever it was you were going, and because of people being scared because of the killing intent they could feel, we have had to postpone the first semi-final match of the Chuunin Exams. Tell me what you were thinking of, and tell me why you did it. Now."

Naruto swallowed thickly. He forced his mouth to work, and his throat rasped sorely, but he explained.

"I 'ad vision… ev'one dead… blood an' sand…"

The Third's eyes widened.

* * *

_Author Notes v1.0_

_Good evening all! I thank each of the nearly 170 people who have added me to their story alerts lists, and the huge amount of you who have reviewed. I apologise greatly for the rather long interval in between updates, however University obviously takes precedence over a fan-fiction due to the rather... labour-intensive work the course involves cough video-editing cough._

_I wish to apologise for the relative shortness of this chapter, however I wasn't entirely sure how to continue it without a break in between updates just yet. I will be working around the clock as much as possible to get another update done before a week has passed, but please don't hold your breath just in case!_

_I would also like to say that anyone who has questions about this fic, my decisions with regards to plot and the such-like, please don't hesitate to ask it via review or PM as I try my damnedest to answer most questions. Obviously, if it is a plot spoiler I may be a bit of a bastard and just hint at a possibility, but there you go._

_Hope to hear from you soon!_

Ja mata ne!


	11. Chapter 10: The Reckoning

**Fate**

* * *

The four ANBU disappeared with faint "woomfs" of air at a gesture from Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha. The elderly ninja dragged a chair forward and placed it by the head of Uzumaki Naruto's bed, and with a faint groan to accompany the creaks and pops of his old joints he sat down.

"Tell me the full story, Naruto."

Uzumaki Naruto took a shuddering breath past his ruined face. As he was about to answer, he let out a wordless, strangled cry of pain instead.

He sat upright at the waist, then began convulsing and yelling more and with ever increasing volume. Sarutobi leapt from the chair and kicked it clear, running through a dozen hand-seals before raising his right hand above his head. Without a word, each of the fingertips on his right hand erupted in flame in quick succession.

Naruto stopped convulsing and dragged himself into a sitting position. Blood dripped steadily from his eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth and stained the white bed sheets horribly, yet all the previous damage he had suffered was nowhere to be seen. His missing teeth had grown back, his broken nose had shifted back into place, and his eyelids weren't swollen or enlarged at all. Sarutobi gazed at Naruto in surprise as the boy simply wiped his face, smearing blood all over his features before lying back against his pillows.

Naruto sighed as he saw the flames around the Sandaime's fingers slowly dissipate. The venerable Hokage hadn't extinguished them yet, but it seemed that with the last blast of healing chakra had come his Visions once more.

"Sit down please, Hokage-sama…" Naruto sighed, hanging his head and touching his face gingerly to check for any lasting pains.

Sarutobi left his fingertips burning with chakra, but reached behind him with his other wizened hand and pulled the chair back to him. He sat, no groan passing his lips to accompany the creaks and pops this time.

Naruto leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling.

"When I was six, I was attacked and stabbed in the stomach. Do you remember, Hokage-sama?"

Naruto didn't need to turn his head to see the slow nod of Sarutobi's understanding, and continued. "The scar that was left broached two markings of the Yondaime's seal. After I was discharged from hospital, I saw the future. I saw one of the villagers throw a stone at my head, and it happened again and again and again until I followed one of the 'Echoes' as I call them and managed to not get hurt. Things like that happened all the time, every minute, for six years, until we're here today. Before I… healed… I couldn't see anything."

"So you learnt about the Kyuubi-"

"Mizuki-sensei told one of my Echoes. I can see two minutes into the future. Precisely two minutes. I've tried hard, and that's the limit. Or at least, it was before today. I relived that revelation for two whole minutes, and the moment before he told me I beat him senseless. That was when Iruka-sensei took me to you, and I knew you'd react badly to me coming out with me being the Kyuubi container, so I lied. I lied for the best result at the time…"

Sarutobi finally let the flames around his fingertips dissipate. He leaned back in his chair and, after settling his elbows on the arms of the chair, spread his fingers like wiry spiders' legs and pressed the fingertips together in front of his face.

"You said until today, Naruto?"

Naruto nodded, letting out a heavy breath. "I don't know what happened, Hokage-sama, but I saw beyond those two minutes. I fell asleep on the roof of my apartment… I dreamt I woke up late for the Chuunin Exam Finals, and I had missed seeing the matches… I ran all the way to the Arena and went through the public stands, but everyone was dead… and then I jumped into the Team-mates box and found all of the ninja my age who took part, or were watching… they were shredded, Hokage-sama… and there was sand everywhere… it was drenched in blood… and then I woke up and I… I… I exploded with power. I fell through my apartment roof and then I ran to the Arena… but someone punched me and I woke up here… I couldn't see anything while I was that angry, Hokage-sama… Not one vision, or I'd be there now."

"How do I know you are telling the truth, Naruto? This is an astounding claim not unlike that of a fanciful child. Prove to me your ability, and I shall believe you."

Naruto simply nodded, and leaned over to collect something from the pocket of his orange pants. He shuffled on his bed, and produced a pack of cards before giving them to the Hokage.

"Shuffle them all. Ninja-fast. I'll close my eyes."

Sarutobi did so, and secreted a few of the cards in the folds of his Hokage robes just to make sure. "Done, Naruto. I assume you wish to tell me which cards I will turn over?"

"Iie, Hokage-sama. I'll tell you that you took five cards from the pack and put them in your cloak."

Sarutobi's eyes widened, and after a quick check concurred with Naruto's claim. "Fine, child… I am glad you've told me this, Naruto," Sarutobi said, leaning forward and putting a hand to his chin. "As is, your use of the Kyuubi's Chakra must be explained to the public, and a reason given for the postponing of the Chuunin Finals. I have pushed them back until tomorrow, so we might have time to figure out what you saw and what it means for our village."

Sarutobi stood up and walked away from Naruto to the door of the hospital room. He turned before he opened the door, and stared seriously at the young ninja. "Naruto, an old student of mine is in Konoha. His name is Jiraiya, of the San-nin, and he is to be treated with the utmost respect. Seek him out, tell him of your plight, and he may well be able to help you. I hope you, in turn, can keep him here long enough to assist in keeping the peace tomorrow. I assume whoever would orchestrate an attack against us would be able to postpone their plans."

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto had found out later he had been asleep on the roof of his apartment for only a few minutes when the vision had hit him, not the hours he thought he had. He had been in the hospital for just over two hours, and he had been required to attend an emergency announcement by the Hokage for every villager. He had stood, along with the hundreds of fellow ninja, in the centre of the Arena and had heard the Sandaime's booming voice declare the chakra that had been felt earlier in the day was that of an enemy ninja who had gained entry to Konoha under the disturbance caused by the Chuunin Exams, and then had set about trying to destroy the village from within using forbidden techniques. Several ANBU had stopped the enemy ninja, but some had been injured and some damage had occurred to a few buildings. Naruto had tried his best not to look guilty at the last few words, but still hung his head in shame anyway.

Now, he wandered the streets looking for this 'Jiraiya' that Sarutobi had sent him looking for. So far, Naruto hadn't found anyone and it was nearing eight at night. He had covered all of the west, north and south districts, and was finally checking the east when he found something he wished he hadn't: a pervert.

* * *

The white-haired man dressed like a Kabuki dance performer was crouched by a knot in the wooden fence of the hot springs. He was scribbling hurriedly in a notebook, most likely sketching Naruto thought, and was chuckling.

Naruto continued his casual-ish stroll towards the perverted fool, and Henge'd into the Hokage. Surely that would frighten the hell out of someone. After a moment of further contemplation, he created four clones and had them Henge into the four ANBU from earlier. Naruto thought there was nothing like a visit from the Hokage and his elite bodyguard to really keep you on your toes, as he had learnt earlier.

* * *

Jiraiya felt someone tap him on the shoulder just as he finished sketching the particular curve that the young woman's hip made as it emerged from beneath the hot water of the spring. He looked up and saw his aged mentor scowling down at him, and with a quick glance saw the four ANBU surrounding him with their wakizashis drawn. He laughed nervously and jumped to his feet, bowing low at the waist and babbling to the 'Hokage'.

"Gomen nasai, Sarutobi-sensei, I was just researching for my next novel and I know you like them so much and I figured I'd come home and see how the ladies were doing here instead of the other places I usually go because I needed-"

"Silence, Jiraiya. And to think you call yourself one of the Legendary San-nin… I should have Cat and Boar remove parts of you right now just for the slur you cause the women of my village…" Naruto spoke in the gruff voice of the wizened ninja. He had his two clones wearing the appropriate masks take a half-step forward, and found it extremely hard not to chuckle to himself when sweat visibly began dripping down the white-haired pervert's face. "Know this Jiraiya, were it any but me that had found you here, you would not enjoy this term of respite. As it is…"

Naruto and his clones were obscured by a loud "cwumph" and flashes of white smoke, and in the place of the five who once surrounded Jiraiya were now thirty twelve-year old blonde ninjas wearing orange sweatpants and black t-shirts.

"It wasn't the Hokage who found you." They all chorused, cracking the knuckles of their hands for good measure. Jiraiya looked slightly less worried, but still looked pretty hard-pressed for relief. "In return for my silence, you shall do as the Hokage told me to ask of you and train me."

Jiraiya sniggered at that, and had the audacity to become haughty. "Oh, really? Do you know who my last-"

"The Yondaime. He taught my sensei, Kakashi. Technically, I already am your student anyway. And in regards to the next thing you're about to say, I fully agree that you should only take on an apprentice if you find them adequate yourself, but I am a special case."

Jiraiya's brow furrowed in confusion, and he held up a hand, pointing in Naruto's face.

"How did you know that?" He and Naruto said at the same time.

"Shut up, Baka." They chorused.

"How do you know what I'm about to say? Stop it. Stop talking at the same time! Don't make me beat the snot out of you, Gaki! Right, that's it, RASENGAN!" Said Naruto, holding up a finger for each of the sentences. He smirked right at Jiraiya, who now looked flabbergasted. "Jiraiya, Student of the Third Hokage, I am Uzumaki Naruto, student of your student's student, and I want you to train me. I am the Yondaime's Legacy, the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and due to an unforeseeable event, nothing is unforeseeable to me. I'll explain it over the bottle of Sake you're about to say you need to take this in, and I'll have a water thanks."

* * *

"So let me get this straight, Gaki, you can see the future. But not the future, only two minutes of it, and so you can plan ahead like no-one has before and outsmart ANBU members?"

Naruto fixed Jiraiya with a serious look, and replied. "As long as they don't out-think me, yes. Sometimes I'm either not fast enough, not strong enough, or there isn't a solution to a problem that doesn't have dire consequences. I can usually work around things, but if you throw thirty kunai at me in a tight spread I still have to move the hell out of the way."

Jiraiya nodded and sipped thoughtfully on his Sake. He had heard a lot tonight, especially about the supposed massacre that had either been prevented, or would occur tomorrow at the Chuunin Exam Finals. He had ignored the opportunity to watch, but he thought that now it might actually be worth checking the matches out. If this kid hadn't been ready, who knew what powerhouses of kids Konoha had put forth this time? There wasn't time to 'train' Naruto in the way anyone usually would, but after hearing the training Kakashi had had the boy doing he understood the significance.

Team Seven, Jiraiya knew now, was terribly unbalanced.

* * *

Jiraiya understood it as this; Uchiha Sasuke, the surviving and loyal member of the Uchiha family was a very good tactician, cold and logical, and had decent book-smarts. He could have done with a larger technique library, and so Kakashi had set about teaching him speed and Jutsu to make him the powerful ninja he was meant to be.

Haruno Sakura, Naruto had told him, was very brain-orientated. She could be a great tactician, and had decent control, if the tree-climbing exercise Naruto had told him of was a good enough example. It made sense that Kakashi was building her reserves and strength to bring her up to an average-to-high Genin level.

Uzumaki Naruto, on the other hand, was most definitely a fists-first boy. He had, up until the last month, not done so much reading or memorised so much information. Of all three, Naruto was possibly the most balanced Ninja amongst his team because now he had the book-smarts to go with his insane amount of stamina. His speed was good, but could probably do with more work before he thought about trying out for Chuunin, but the ability to foresee events was most likely the root of that particular problem. Who needed to dodge overly quickly when you could see how to dodge something without moving too much? The boy learned Jutsu from scrolls and books like a sponge absorbed water, and he could perform them passably without practise as long as the technique wasn't too different from something else he knew. Add the foresight into the equation, and the unique spin it put on his training, and in normal terms of learning the boy could get a technique down within hours instead of days.

Jiraiya had been thinking about this all while Naruto had rattled off facts and observations about what could possibly be done within less than eighteen hours. Jiraiya, of course, hadn't really paid attention to anything apart from the truly important facts and had drawn most of his own conclusions. The blood and sand connection probably drew to the Jinchuuriki that Suna-no-Gakure had sent to the Chuunin Exams this year. He had heard from Morino Ibiki that being squashed to death within a cocoon of sand during the Preliminary Matches had actually killed a Grass Genin. There was nothing quite like having an old friend and informant in the form of Konoha's head of Torture and Interrogation, Jiraiya thought.

It made sense, Jiraiya thought, given that the Kazekage was here to observe the boy's progress. Who better to take down a Kage than a Kage? Add the power of the Ichibi to an attack against Konoha, from within the village walls no less, and you have an awesome amount of power to bring to bear.

Naruto was still and silent a moment before Jiraiya drained the last of the Sake in the small porcelain bottle he held, and nodded when the older man suggested they go to somewhere more private than a tavern to discuss their course of action.

* * *

"This," Jiraiya said, "Is the Summoning Contract of the Toads." The white-haired pervert spread the large scroll out on the grass in front of him, names revealing as the strong paper was unfurled farther. Towards the end of the scroll was written Jiraiya's name, and the name of the Yondaime Hokage. Naruto's eyes had widened considerably after finding out the name of the legendary hero who had sealed the Kyuubi within him, as he tried and failed to remember a time when anyone had actually used the Yondaime's real name.

"Namikaze Minato?"

Jiraiya smiled warmly, and put his large calloused hand on the younger boy's shoulder. "The Yondaime. I don't know why no one seems to know his name, he was a great kid and it wasn't a big secret. I think most of the people who actually knew it and who cared to repeat it just died in the Kyuubi attack. Besides, 'Yondaime' is catchier, don't you think? Makes it harder for people to know where his grave is. Now, to the matter at hand, Naruto. This is the Summoning Contract of Toads. As you can see, the Yondaime and I have both signed it. It is a great honour to have your name on this scroll, and only one Ninja per generation my sign their name. Any more than this, and the Contract will be void, which means no one will ever be able to summon the Toads again, ever. I am offering you this because you are unique amongst your generation, and I can't think of anyone better equipped to summon Toads besides me than yourself. You hold greater chakra reserves than anyone your age, and beyond it in most cases, and given your unique 'gift' I believe you may well learn this faster than learning any Jutsu or Technique I could teach you. Now, do you wish to sign?"

Naruto thought for a long moment, and nodded slowly.

"Then cut a fingertip and make it bleed. While the blood flows freely, write your name and then cover each of your fingertips in your blood. Once that is done, place your fingertips at the bottom of your name and leave your mark. Then, you shall be the next Toad Summoner."

Naruto followed Jiraiya's instructions, and gawked as the scroll furled itself back up before exploding in a puff of white smoke. Jiraiya patted Naruto's shoulder, and shoved him forwards.

"Now go to bed, Gaki, we need to be up early to train you before we go and watch the matches. We need to make sure you're ready in case anything happens."


	12. Chapter 11: The Betrayer

**Only as strong as the weakest link**

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke transitioned between his sleep and wakefulness without any visible signs. His eyes remained closed, his breathing even, not even a stretch betrayed his waking.

As such, when he sat up quickly, a kunai loosing itself from his hand and lodging firmly in the chest of the dark figure that stood at the foot of his bed, it was entirely without warning. The body slumped then began melting, the kunai clanging softly as it hit the floor. Four huge snakes, their acidic-purple skin shimmering in the half-light coming through the curtained window, slithered around the young Ninja's arms and legs before he had chance to move, restraining him as a shadow from across the room grew larger and more solid before approaching with all the urgency of flowing molasses.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the figure spoke, the voice a disturbingly androgynous hiss. "Fighting is useless... you don't stand a chance of injuring me, nor will anyone hear you should you try to yell..."

Sasuke's struggling increased marginally and then ceased completely as the thick-bodied snakes constricted tighter about his frame.

"Tell me... Have you heard talk of the Traitor of Konoha? The Third San-nin, the Hebi Sennin? Orochimaru? I am he... and I have a proposal for you, Sasuke-kun..."

Sasuke shook with rage, despite the strength of his bonds, and spat at Orochimaru in disgust. "What makes you think I'd listen to you?"

Orochimaru chuckled as the spittle fell far short of touching him and moved a step closer to his captive, at last stepping into the light. The dull glow of the street lights that filtered through the curtains of Sasuke's bedroom illuminated one half of Orochimaru's face; his right eye, part of his sneering mouth, and an enlarged fang-like canine tooth that stood out from the others within his mouth that glinted malevolently.

"You will listen, child, because without me you will never kill your brother Itachi."

The torrent of abuse, promises of pain and death, and the much-increased struggling of Sasuke made Orochimaru laugh ominously, and without warning the snake-summoner's head lanced forward on a neck made seemingly of rubber, only to stop just as suddenly by Sasuke's ear.

"With the power I will give you now, you will be able to challenge your brother, but die anyway. If you forsake this pathetic excuse for a Village, as I did, you will pose a far greater threat to him, and if you advance your Sharingan-" Orochimaru moved close enough to Sasuke's ear to brush it with his cheek as he spoke. "By killing your best friend... with my guidance you will easily kill Itachi and avenge your entire clan. All I ask is that you spit upon the weaklings who would keep you from your destiny and follow me."

With that, Orochimaru nestled his face closer to the crook of Sasuke's neck and, with a hiss, bit down hard enough to break the flesh.

Sasuke screamed, and the snakes about his limbs retreated back into the shadows. The young ninja immediately curled in on himself, assuming the foetal position as a sheen of sweat almost instantly erupted across his body. His neck burned like it was being branded as the three tomoe of the Heaven Cursed Seal blossomed across the skin.

"Remember, Sasuke-kun..." Orochimaru said as his head retreated from Sasuke's neck and he walked his body away from the bottom of the boy's bed. "Kill your best friend, forsake the village, seek me out. Only then will you be able to kill Itachi."

With that, Orochimaru simply melted back into the blackness once again, leaving Sasuke writhing and moaning in pain upon his bed.

* * *

_Sorry for the long, long time in between updates but things have been a bit crazy. I'll add another chapter either tomorrow or tuesday!_


	13. Chapter 12: The Betrayal

**The Betrayal**

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto awoke after only a few hours of sleep, with the rising of the sun. He jumped out of bed and ran through his morning ritual in record time.

Once fed, watered and clothed he jumped out of the window in his kitchen area and headed straight for Training Ground Seven at top speed. Once he arrived, for the next three hours he practised the Kuchiyose no Jutsu. Within the first hour he had managed to stop summoning tadpoles and their many variations, and had conjured forth a small orange toad called Gamakichi. The young toad stayed throughout the next hour and a half, chatting to a Kage Bunshin while the original Naruto practised. The beginning of the third hour heralded a brainwave, and a moment after it had occurred the entirety of Training Ground Seven was covered with mildly self-harming Narutos. Each clone practised a variation of making itself bleed, and with each new impromptu way of slicing one's fingers came an increase in speed and knowledge for the others as the 'fortunate' Clone was dispersed. At the end of the third hour, Naruto could successfully bring a human-sized toad into existence. He stopped and dismissed all of his clones, however, as Sakura and a slightly paler-than-usual Sasuke wandered into the clearing.

* * *

Sakura kept shooting worried little glances at the object of her affections, while Sasuke simply scowled harder with each passing minute. Kakashi arrived next, only twenty minutes after he had agreed to meet the trio instead of the usual two hours, and after a quick discussion on who was fighting today, and who each member of the team thought would win their respective fights, the quartet set off towards the Arena.

Sasuke had perked up immensely, for him, and was scowling less, although when pressed for an answer to his mysterious ailment he gave a grunt and claimed it was "bad rice" from the night before.

* * *

Team Seven arrived in the crowded spectator stands of the Chuunin Arena amid loud cheers. Apparently they had missed seeing the first match, where a fairly angry looking Hyuuga Neji had triumphed over Nara Shikamaru. The win lost its excitement, however, when it was revealed to the four ninja that Shikamaru had forfeited after a relatively one-sided battle by claiming "Chakra Exhaustion". It didn't really matter he had out-thought the Hyuuga at every turn and had managed to capture him with his extended shadow.

Akimichi Chouji, a stocky Konoha Genin, was drawn against a blonde Suna Kunoichi by the name of Temari. The girl beat Chouji, but only after a rather violent match lasting almost a half an hour after she made the grave mistake of calling the boy "fat".

Naruto reached over and grabbed Kakashi's arm just as the next match was announced, prompting the Jounin to look at his student in puzzlement.

"Kakashi-sensei, someone is going to cast a Genjutsu that'll put everyone to sleep. I can't tell who's going to cast it though..."

Kakashi smiled and nodded as if Naruto had asked him a question before settling back in his chair. Internally however, he steeled himself for the coming conflict. The exams were a strange forum for an attack given the heightened security, but if the Genjutsu was powerful enough it could effectively quarter Konoha's military strength. Kakashi waited, each second dragging by until he saw people falling asleep across the entire length of the stands as the sleep-technique spread.

* * *

Kakashi waited until the wave was about to hit and pulled his hitai-ite up to uncover his Sharingan eye. His three students, he was glad to see, had resisted the effects of the technique along with him. A few ninja who had managed to escape the Genjutsu across the Arena were already fighting invading ninja, meaning Team Seven had little time to react. The quartet used those precious few seconds working that out before a pair of Suna-nin from the Kazekage's escort dropped from the roof above with kunai clutched in their fists.

Naruto and Sasuke acted as one, grabbing Sakura and throwing themselves back to the rear of the stand. They watched as Kakashi punch a lightning-covered fist through the stomach of one ninja, and kick the other off the precarious perch it had taken on the railing. The ninja screamed as he fell the forty feet, the sound cutting off with a sickening wet crunch as he met the ground below.

"Wake up any ninja you can and start fighting back!" yelled Kakashi as the sounds of battle grew louder across the entire Arena.

The Battle for Konoha had begun.

* * *

Naruto was already running before Kakashi had even finished saying "back". He hurled himself forward and kicked Kakashi's legs out from under him as three kunai whistled through the air from behind, impacting the wall after passing in between Sakura and Sasuke. Naruto rolled out from under his teacher and lobbed a shuriken blindly in the direction the thrown knives had come from before loosing another down the length of the stand they inhabited. The flying metal star met the face of another Suna-nin just as he rose above the lip of the railing, mid-jump. Two shrieks rang out in concert as both Shuriken found their marks and ended the fight from two enemies. Before Kakashi could even rise again, Naruto brought his hand up in a half-seal and blasted away in a tornado of leaves.

His foot, once visible along with the rest of his body on the opposite side of the Arena where some of the failed Chuunin hopefuls were fighting hard against a large number of enemy ninja, met the hand of an enemy with a music note on his hitai-ite in time to send the kunai it held straight into an eye socket. Naruto landed from the kick, plucked a kunai from a nearby (and dead) Suna-nin's thigh holster in time to block a downward swing from another Oto-nin clutching a knife and drove the captured blade up to its hilt in the chest of the ninja. As the Oto-nin fell backwards, gurgling as blood welled in its lungs, Naruto threw up a Tora seal and conjured forth a horde of Kage Bunshin.

Naruto landed a solid kick into the gut of a Suna-nin, sending the attacker flailing backwards until it came to an abrupt stop as the base of its skull met a kunai clenched tightly in Uchiha Sasuke's hand.

* * *

Naruto took a step backwards, Sasuke's intent all too clear. "Why?" the blonde Genin asked, keeping his guard up just in case.

"You know why, dobe..." came the cold reply, even as Sasuke's immature Sharingan eyes flared blood-red and the tomoe began to spin dangerously. Naruto nodded once, his expression turning grim.

"Fine, Uchiha. But don't say I didn't warn you."

With that, the battle began.

* * *

Sasuke took no time before kicking the body of the Suna-nin away from himself and flashing through hand-seals at top speed. Naruto ran forwards before throwing both of his legs out in front of him, even as Sasuke exhaled a huge fireball towards him. The edge of the growing flames licked for half a moment at the rubber soles of Naruto's sandals as he fell, too slowly in his opinion, to the floor of the stand. Naruto's rear landed hard in a slick patch of spilt blood, the claret liquid providing enough lubrication to send the young boy sliding underneath the Goukyaku to Sasuke's feet. Naruto kicked out, hoping to smash a foot into the dark-haired boy's knee to incapacitate, but he was already moving. The Uchiha swept his left foot around in a wide semi-circle, spinning away from Naruto's attack, coming face to face with an Oto-nin in time to send the heel of his right palm into the man's jaw hard enough to break his neck.

Naruto scissored his legs, spinning to his feet and launching a kick at Sasuke's back. Sasuke span to his right, the extended arm sweeping down and knocking Naruto's foot away. The blonde swung his left leg up and across his body like an axe before his right foot had regained contact with the floor, only to have Sasuke grab the extended limb and sneer at him. Naruto's upper lip twitched as he released a huge blast of chakra through his foot that sent the traitorous team-mate sailing through the air with a cry of frustration.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, and he turned in time to see three Oto-nin land behind him and lunge forward. Naruto leapt over the railing towards the Arena floor far below, flailing his limbs before calling forth a score of Kage Bunshin to break his fall. Before the smoke had even cleared, he had dropped and rolled to his left as a small cluster of kunai rained down from above, closely followed by one of the three enemy ninja. Naruto grinned widely at the invader, the bandaged man cocking his head in confusion a split second before Sasuke's foot slammed it into the wall with enough force to burst an eyeball and crack his skull.

Sasuke roared in triumph as he swung his arm down at Naruto's head, a kunai clutched in his fist, only to have his friend turn into the corpse of the Oto-nin Sasuke had just killed. Sasuke's Sharingan whirled faster, and he dropped to the floor in a press-up as Naruto's fist parted the air where his head had just been, then turned himself over with Naruto's forward foot clenched tightly between his legs.

Naruto rolled with the fall, already knowing he had really screwed up. He didn't want to admit it, but the battle against Sasuke's Sharingan was extremely taxing, the echoes he saw growing fewer and fewer with each passing moment. No matter what he tried, Naruto could only just land blows on his erstwhile ally without being cornered or injured too badly, and now his luck had run out.

Sasuke twisted himself to his knees, Naruto still pinned below him, and slid a kunai from the blonde ninja's thigh holster. He stabbed it hard into the base of Naruto's spine, the sharp knife parting skin and scraping sickeningly against bone. Naruto screamed in pain, his legs begin to twitch spasmodically as the signals from his brain to his lower extremities ceased abruptly. Sasuke's grin widened to an almost insane width as he untangled himself from his friend and picked the crippled boy up by his shirt collar. Sasuke dragged Naruto back to the wall of the Arena, lifting him to eye-level before slamming the bloody kunai he still clutched into the genin's hand.

Naruto's eyes bulged as he screamed, the feel of the sharp knife being driven through his hand bringing back memories from the darkest oblivion his mind could have given them. He jabbered, stammering with tears rolling down his face, as Sasuke gripped his right hand by the wrist and slammed it up against the wall as well, another kunai already in his free hand.

"You know, dobe... I actually don't feel anywhere near as bad as I thought I would, doing this to you... its actually fun, almost..." Sasuke taunted as he flicked the kunai around in his hand, weighing it. Naruto begged the Uchiha with his eyes, his lower lip caught between his teeth to suppress his anguish. In reply to the silent pleading, Sasuke simply began laughing and drove the kunai, to the hilt, into the flesh of Naruto's right hand.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto saw it happening. He knew the knife was going to slam right into his hand, the grip Sasuke had too strong to break. He saw a way out, finally, as the blade was mere centimetres from his palm. He bit harder upon his lip as the felt the knife part skin, bone and muscle, tasted blood when his canine teeth finally broke the skin and clacked painfully into the teeth of his bottom jaw through the soft flesh, and squeezed his eyes shut as tears of pain fell afresh from his eyes.

He felt the blood pouring down his hand.

He clenched his right hand as best he could, impeded as it was by the blade.

He opened his eyes, glaring hard into Sasuke's own with anger, realising there was no easy way to stop his friend.

He tore his hand free from the wall and the kunai, the ring finger of his right hand left behind, erect and saluting the small jerk he had managed to slide his hand down the wall in the milliseconds before impact.

He slapped his hand into Sasuke's stomach, the dark-haired boy's eyebrow raising in question a split second later.

He heard the words he said, and the drain of chakra that came with them even as he saw his resistance of fate was futile.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

* * *

Sasuke's eyes widened massively as he heard the words that tumbled from Naruto's lips in a pain-filled slur. He had enough time to process the words and look down to see the ethereal kanji that spread across his chest before he was sent flying backwards with the force of ten explosive notes.

The four-foot tall Toad that burst into existence cocked its head and opened its mouth to question the rather worse-for-wear Summoner who had called it into the physical world before it was dispelled just as suddenly by a kunai through its skull.

Sasuke had been sent almost thirty feet by the insane act of Summoning, but recovered fast enough to launch a knife at the creature before he even hit the dirt. He rolled, feeling odd stones and pebbles crunching into his limbs and face and feeling the sting of dirt being pressed into shallow cuts before sliding to a halt and standing. The pain fuelled his anger, and the anger fuelled his madness. He stomped over to where Naruto still hung, swaying slightly from one hand, his legs jelly-like underneath him. Sasuke slammed a chakra-encased fist hard into Naruto's stomach, the action causing the blonde to cough blood right into the Uchiha's face, before slipping the remaining two kunai from Naruto's holster.

"You're a little bitch, do you know that?" Sasuke sneered maliciously into Naruto's face. The crippled Genin chuckled weakly, and raised an eye to meet Sasuke's.

"I'm not the one with Uke in my name, bastard..."

Sasuke's Sharingan span once more before he grabbed the blonde's right wrist once more. He raised the limb high, placing it next to the kunai that still resided in the wall with Naruto's missing finger sat atop it, and plunged one of the two remaining knives hard through his palm. Naruto didn't cry out this time, too weakened, but managed when Sasuke plunged the last kunai into the centre of his chest.

"Choke on it, dead-last. I'll see you in hell."

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke walked slowly across the Arena. He looked about at the battles raging around him, somehow numbed too much to care that Konoha was in the middle of an invasion attempt. He sighed at the carnage, and brought his hands together in a half-seal as he prepared to Shunshin away.

Imagine his surprise, then, when Hatake Kakashi's hands broke free from the soil below him, grabbed his ankles, and pulled him under the hard earth. Before he could do anything else, a hard kick to the head knocked him out cold.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi was renowned throughout Konoha and indeed most other Hidden Villages for being a cold-hearted killer in battle. He was known more in Konoha for his more forgiving attitude when it came to breaches of protocol and tardiness.

He was known nowhere on the planet for the sheer fury he was giving off right now.

Uchiha Sasuke was secured deep within the ANBU headquarters underneath Konoha, numerous chakra bindings upon him and three guards minimum at all times, day or night.

Konoha no Gakure itself had almost fallen, the invasion swift and deadly, but for the acts of two people in particular. The Sandaime Hokage had fought the false Kazekage upon the roofs of the Arena, their battle uninterrupted by either side due to a massive Chakra barrier erected by four Oto-nin. Despite the attempts at breaching the barrier, none had succeeded until Orochimaru, still in his Kazekage robes, along with his four servants, had fled. The dead body of the Sandaime, a smile on his face, was found along with the coffins of both the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokages, no trace of either great warrior remained.

Jiraiya-sama, the only other Sannin to return to Konoha since all three had left many years ago, arrived shortly after the invasion had began, but still too late to stop the bloody battle between Naruto and Sasuke. After finding his student's body nailed to the wall of the Arena, he had flown into a rage. The middle-aged, portly ninja had accounted for almost one hundred enemies, and with the help of the squads of ANBU that remained, made sure all invaders were fleeing within an hour.

Kakashi shook the distractions from his mind as he walked through the dark corridor to his destination. The air was thick with tension, and haunting whispers followed him as unseen persons mumbled between themselves, should they be able to.

He intended fully to follow through his self-appointed mission of speaking to Sasuke, and of sealing the Cursed Seal that had already done so much damage to the Uchiha's mind, but that was for later.

He had been surprised to learn of the Mangekyou Sharingan forming within Sasuke's eyes, although he shouldn't have. Uchiha Sasuke had succeeded in killing his best friend.

It was fortunate, therefore, that Uzumaki Naruto had a tendency to be extremely lucky at times.

It was fortunate, for once, that Uzumaki Naruto happened to be the container of the Kyuubi no Yoko.

It was a damned miracle the fox demon had brought his vessel back to life three times.


	14. Chapter 13: Recovery

**Recovery**

* * *

_AN: Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed my last chapter, and i'd like to take this time to address a question that has cropped up a lot in the last batch of reviews, worded either good or bad. I've recieved some criticism, one person even going so far as to tell me that the fight between Naruto and Sasuke spoilt my story, but I hope I'll be able to sort out that little foible now._

_Sasuke (or Uke-chan as I've started to call him) won the fight, and it was a pretty short fight at that. Let me explain._

_The Sharingan, even immature, increases your chances of winning a fight because it reads the body of your attacker/victim and helps you predict what their move is going to be. The downside is it makes you feel invulnerable because you can SEE the fight, but its weakness is that you can't necessarily avoid the blow that is coming at you. You could block, if you were faster than your opponent._

_Naruto sees the future accurately to within two minutes of present time. He does so without thinking, and the only thing that stops this is when the Kyuubi within him either floods his system with Youki or if the Kyuubi heals him. After time, this wears off and he sees the future again. He is used to seeing what happens, and thus hasn't seen any real need so far to speed himself up because he hasn't fought against the Sharingan yet._

_When they come to blows, the Sharingan predicts what is going to happen, while Naruto can only see what happens. Sasuke sees Naruto's attack, sees how to counter, but can't counter the blow because he isn't fast enough. Naruto gets the odd hit in because he makes Sasuke react, but not quickly enough. He's fighting a losing battle from the outset, because for all he can see the future and see what could work, Sasuke sees Naruto attacking in real-time and reacts to that, negating the Echo._

_Naruto at no point begged. He did plead with his eyes, but I think i should have wrote this a little clearer. He pleaded for his friend to stop walking the path to corrupted power. Sasuke ignored him._

_I probably haven't explained it as best I can, but it is a slightly confusing subject. Until Naruto trains harder and becomes faster, Sasuke will win through a fight of attrition. Naruto will be able to land a few blows, but not as many as Sasuke can. Hope you enjoy this chapter, and those of you who hate the story because of my supposed failure in writing ability are more than welcome to carry on reading and telling me what I've done wrong, I don't really mind. Constructive abuse, i think its called..._

_EDIT: Right, lets try again. Naruto sees what will work, or as close to it as possible and goes with that. Sasuke reacts with equal measure to all of Naruto's attacks and defences regardlessly as Naruto chooses one and acts. Thus, Sasuke's Sharingan negates the effects of the Echo UNTIL Naruto becomes faster than Sasuke, or much more powerful than him._

_Anyhow! Enjoy Chapter 13 in the continuing story of Next; Recovery._

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata was shy. Unbelievably so, in fact. She was uncomfortable with her body, her words, even her habits and crush on Uzumaki Naruto.

Despite this, when she heard that the blonde boy was in a hospital room just down the hall from her own private room, she began worrying and set off immediately.

'Down the hall' turned out, much to the nurse who found the young heiress leaning heavily on a wall three floors down from her starting point, to be a bit of a stretch of her imagination. After being escorted back to her bed no less than four times within the first day, the duty nurse eventually got sick of the escape attempts and offered to take her to visit the next day. Hinata had agreed, but not before turning a shade of red that warranted a thermometer 'just in case'.

* * *

Upon arriving at Naruto's room, Hinata carefully rose from the wheelchair the nurse had provided, allowed the older woman to check the bandages she wore across her left shoulder, and padded into the room.

Hinata almost turned around and left immediately upon seeing the room was occupied, but the strange man with spiky white hair who was asleep in a chair and snoring softly didn't even stir at her stammered apology for intruding. She squared her shoulders though, when it was apparent the old man wasn't going to wake, and she wandered slowly to Naruto's bedside.

The blonde-haired boy was laid flat on his back, his head tilted towards his right shoulder. His arms lay on top of the white sheets at his sides, the right hand bandaged heavily. There were some small scabs on the back of his left hand, but it looked more like a small scratch than anything serious.

Hinata pulled the remaining chair in the room towards herself, wincing at the low moan the legs made as they moved over the marble-like floor tiles. She sat, tentatively reaching out her hand and placing it on Naruto's left forearm in comfort. She blushed heavily, but steadied her breathing and relaxed a little. She sighed in relief as she rested her left shoulder, the bandages wrapped there not feeling as tight as they had a moment ago. It was her own fault she was here again, she knew, much as it had been her fault when she had been admitted after the preliminary matches of the Chuunin Exam.

The scars from Neji's fingernails on her right cheek were as much a reminder as anything that she had failed. The three crescent-moon shaped scars were not a result of his nails being too long, or having broken the skin much, but the chakra that had infused them when he has struck out at her. She had been moments too slow in ducking, but it saved her right arm from being as damaged as her left had. Even now, her right leg twinged at the knee when she didn't stretch properly, another souvenir of Neji's rough handling.

Her left arm now, though, was an entirely different matter. She had been in the stand Naruto had come to first. He had simply appeared with a faint whooshing noise and had started attacking any enemy ninjas within reach. Hinata had been having trouble until he arrived, much like the four or five others who had remained at that particular area, and his presence had bolstered their defence slightly until, without warning, Naruto had burst into smoke.

Everyone had been surprised, the Kage Bunshin had been so realistic. That was, however, the point of the technique, but the level of detail had been staggering. It was in that moment of surprise that the Oto-nin she had been fighting had slammed a Kunai into her neck, thankfully aiming downwards rather than sideways. The blade had slid down into the relatively soft flesh between her trapezoid muscle and her collarbone, missing her trachea and voice box by the smallest of margins.

Hinata hung her head a little lower as she recalled the rage that had flashed through her then, and the slight pain she had felt as the veins around her eyes that were already swelled with chakra were sent a fresh burst, along with some adrenaline. She had screamed, no, roared almost at the enemy ninja. He had been so surprised at the noise he took a step back, and that had been all Hinata had needed. A tear rolled down her cheek as she recalled bunching her right fist up, not for a Jyuuken strike, but to simply cause as much pain to her attacker as possible. Were it not for the blast of chakra she had instinctively thrown from her hand at the point of impact, the Sound Ninja would have gotten away with a blackened eye instead of losing most of his face as his skull was fragmented and his eyeball burst in its socket.

She had talked about it, of course, to Kurenai-sensei when the kind Jounin had come to check on her recovery, and she had been very nice about it all by saying sometimes anger got the better of most people, and that if it hadn't been for that small loss of control Hinata may well have been fighting for longer and could, although not likely, be in a worse condition than she was. Kurenai had then given Hinata a quick hug, much to the young Hyuuga's embarrassment, before she had left with a wave to her student. Hinata had been bright red for almost an hour.

"You know, Hyuuga-hime," Jiraiya began, his eyes still closed and no change of expression visible on his face even as the young girl practically launched herself out of the chair she sat in and let go of Naruto's arm like it was coated in lava. "I'm glad Naruto has a friend like you, even if he doesn't know it exactly. You're the only person apart from Kakashi-baka to have come and seen him."

Hinata stammered, quickly turning pink. She settled for bowing to Jiraiya in the end, her attempts at speaking stopping for a moment as she gathered herself. "Gomen nasai, Ojiisan, I d-didn't mean to disturb you or Naru- ano, Uzumaki-kun."

Jiraiya opened one eye and grinned. "'Ojiisan'? Jiraiya will do, Hyuuga-sama."

From her bowed posture, Hinata's head shot up like a cork and levelled her now very-wide eyes at the old man. "Jiraiya-sama o-of the Sannin?"

The Sannin's grin grew wider, and he nodded once. Hinata's jaw went slack, her mouth hanging open in a rather unladylike manner, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed in a dead faint.

"EH?!" Jiraiya yelled, jumping from his chair in concern and staring at the unconscious girl. "What did I do?!"

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata was taken back to her room soon after, and Jiraiya given a scolding for exciting the poor girl. He should, according to the nurses, know better than to shock young impressionable ninjas with his title. The Toad Hermit shook his head lightly as he returned to his chair, glancing sidelong at his new student. The boy was in good shape, really, apart from the severed spinal cord and lost finger. He had been incensed that the Uchiha boy was still living, until the two elderly ninja who acted as advisers to the Hokage before the old man's death, had visited and told him of their decision regarding the boy. Unless Jiraiya could permanently seal the Cursed Seal, or remove it, they would be forced to execute the boy. Jiraiya knew it wasn't exactly... correct, given that given a few months he could have worked out the seal's origins and stood a chance at stopping it from influencing the young Uchiha again, but he had refused citing the danger posed by the Mangekyou-wielding child. Thus had the execution been set for three weeks from now, plenty of time for the ANBU to try and rip secrets from the boy's mind.

Jiraiya watched as Naruto slowly came around, a smirk on his face due to his student missing the dark-haired visitor who had been acting a little... forward for 'just acquaintances'. Naruto's eyes blinked slowly, his gaze weary, and he coughed a few times before he gained cohesiveness enough to know where he was.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Gaki. Here, have some water. Just a sip or two, mark you, just to get rid of that feeling that something is trying to eat your throat." Jiraiya said, proffering a plastic beaker with a straw hanging out of it. Naruto sucked the straw into his mouth, sucked a few times, and released the straw from between his lips with a sigh of satisfaction.

"Hey, Pervert" the young boy rasped, coughing gently as he tried to make his voice work again. "How long have I been out?"

"Two days." was the reply, concern in the simple statement.

"I can't feel my legs too good..." Naruto said, trying to wiggle his toes and sighing when nothing happened beneath the sheets. "Guess they haven't fixed that yet, huh?"

"Naruto... they're not sure they can."

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke sat upon the floor of his dark cell, the stone around him etched with deep seals that suppressed chakra and burnt with unnatural light, and the pitiful scratches of those who had inhabited the cell before him.

He stared at the wall, black eyes lifeless. His right cheek would, occasionally, twitch involuntarily, and his jaw clenched as his thoughts kept coming back to the same fact.

He had killed Naruto.

He hadn't been able to help himself. The power that had been flooding his veins from the moment he activated his Sharingan had been... exquisite, but his mind had descended into rage at Naruto still being able to score hits on him. He was better than that fool, damn it! And now, he was more alive too. That didn't mean he didn't regret it, though. Only a small amount, he told himself as the sickening light pulsed brighter for a moment, but he did.

The section of stone behind him that was unblemished with the almost unholy seals melted quickly, a figure stepping through and tying a blindfold about his head within an instant. Sasuke had had this happen three times in the last... however long he had been here, and knew what to expect. Interrogation, condemnation and scorn.

He rose to his feet as best he could, the unknown person who had blindfolded him grasping him by the arm and dragging him up, before being shoved hard towards the cell opening. Maybe he could bargain for a release?

* * *

"What do you mean, they can't do anything?" Naruto murmured in shock, his eyes wide as he stared at Jiraiya.  
Jiraiya fixed the blonde with a hard gaze, and set his jaw. "Exactly that. It is mending, thanks to the Kyuubi within you, but very slowly." Jiraiya looked away for a moment, then with confusion written across his face, continued. "I thought you could see the future?"

"It takes a while to come back if the fox has been involved, I guess... he's healing me right? Guess he's just busy right now."

Jiraiya shook his head. He'd never understand this boy, he just knew it.

"What happened to Sasuke?"

The middle-aged ninja's head shot up and stared at Naruto in surprise. "Eh?"

* * *

It confused Haruno Sakura that many people throughout Konoha were grumbling darkly about Sasuke's betrayal of his home village and Naruto's survival equally. Surely it should be good news that the blonde was alive, even if he was an annoying pest? _I mean_, she thought to herself after avoiding a villager who was ranting about the 'last one' had turned bad, _Naruto could be a pain, but his pranks and things weren't bad enough to earn death, were they?_

The pink-haired girl wandered in a fugue as she thought about how close Naruto had come to death at the hands of her team-mate, no destination in mind.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto listened half-heartedly as Jiraiya told him the fortune of his former team-mate. Halfway into the story, Naruto had heard the ending as his Echoes returned. The feeling in his lower extremities though, had not. He nodded in acceptance after hearing how the boy had been turned to Orochimaru, how there was no valid hope of removing the seal or containing it in some way, but still felt ill after hearing of Sasuke's impending execution.

Three weeks. Naruto almost baulked a few times while Jiraiya prattled on about how he was going to train him at the thought of knowing the date of his friend's death. Okay, so on reflection Sasuke probably wasn't the greatest of friends, but even so. Naruto was used to avoiding bad things, and helping others avoid them when he could, but this was... not so great.

The blonde sat on his bed, head hung low, and wondered how Sakura was going to take all of this.

* * *

**Two Weeks Later**

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto grinned widely as he finally felt the hot sunshine on his face again. It had taken just under a fortnight, but he finally had the use of his legs again. True, every now and again he had to deal with terrible pins and needles, and he still couldn't feel all of his left foot, but he could at last do any number of things he had spent thinking about in that damned hospital bed.

Top of the agenda; Ramen.

The boy ran off, stumbling once or twice but not falling, and arrived at the stand in almost record time. With a yell that hadn't been heard in almost three weeks, he ordered a meal fit for a Daimyo. In his opinion, anyway.

* * *

The baleful light, almost dirty in its unnatural glow, lit the rather haggard features of Uchiha Sasuke. His heavily-lidded eyes, black and empty, stared at the lines hewn into the rock walls of his prison and reflected little of his previous fire. His clothes hung limply around his slightly thinner frame, and his hair fell lank and greasy about his face.

How many more times, he wondered, would the ANBU come and ask those same questions?

Why had he killed Naruto.

When had Orochimaru come to claim him.

Why had Orochimaru attacked.

The questions were worded differently each time, but they boiled down to the same three queries. It was soul-destroying. He didn't know the answers to two of the three, and the last he had explained countless times despite how obvious it was. Power. Power to kill Uchiha Itachi.

And look where it had gotten him.

He continued staring into space as the stone behind him once more seemed to dissolve, and he allowed the ANBU to slip the blindfold over his eyes and drag him up.

Once more into the interrogation cell, my friends. Once more.

* * *

Jiraiya wandered towards the small Ramen stand near the centre of Konoha. He'd been over by the stream just outside the walls of the village for research, but had found the location devoid of subjects and so had resolved instead to explain why he wouldn't be training Naruto immediately. He'd give the boy the basics of what he was going to make him learn once he returned, of course, but still...

He found the blonde ninja perched atop a high stool, three empty bowls in front of him and a pair of fresh bowls just being placed. Jiraiya sat down on the stool next to his slurping pupil, only to have the second bowl pushed towards him in between inhalations of noodles.

"Hm? Beef with Roast Pork? But this-" Jiraiya started, only to be prodded in the side with a fresh pair of unbroken chopsticks by Naruto.

"Is your favourite, I know. Eat."

The Sannin shrugged and snapped the utensils apart with a petulantly mumbled 'Itadekimasu' and dug in. The two of them ate in relative silence, paid, and set off after thanking Teuchi without a word. A few minutes later, and the pair were sat in Naruto's kitchen. Jiraiya took in the surroundings, a little thrown by the appearance. Despite the young ninja's absence, the apartment was spotless and there wasn't a smell of rotten foodstuffs. There was fresh bread on the counter, still wrapped in the paper it came in, and the washing up was done.

A longer look around revealed a shuriken target next to the door that led to Naruto's bedroom, most of the nicks in the hard material in and around the bullseye. Small plants, albeit looking a little under-watered, sat on top of the refrigerator and the window-sill to add a bit of colour to the room despite the pale yellow paint upon the walls and the gleaming white tiles that reflected the sunlight that streamed past the light-blue shade.

"Eh, Naruto-"

"Kage Bunshin while we were at Ichiraku's. I hate the place being in a mess... Never knew when Jii-Jii was going to come around and say 'hi'." Naruto interrupted. His eyes were glazed, a far-off stare in them as he spoke of the dead man. He shrugged a moment later, a smirk on his face, and looked sidelong at Jiraiya. "Ne, Ero-Sennin, you think they'll ask you to take the job?"

The white-haired man snorted and rolled his eyes, grimacing in pain. "If they did I'd have to kick those damned Advisor's old asses. I wouldn't take the job if you paid me! All that paperwork... Sarutobi-sensei knew Kage Bunshin and even HE couldn't cope with it!"

The pair chuckled between themselves for a few moments before Naruto hopped down from his perch on the work-top and opened a cupboard. He pulled out a plastic bag filled with coloured objects and tore it open with his teeth before spilling the contents in front of Jiraiya, who sat at the table.

"Nani?"

"Water Balloons. You were going to tell me we needed Water Balloons. I've been saving these for Kakashi-sensei, but you know..."

Jiraiya grinned as he stood and filled a few of the Balloons at Naruto's kitchen sink. He sat down, a few of the water-filled ones sat in front of him as he motioned for Naruto to fill the rest.

"This was the Yondaime's signature technique, aside from the one that earned him the name of Yellow Flash. Are you familiar with it?"

Naruto nodded as he tied the end of his third balloon. "Rasengan. There were a few things on it in the books at the library, but nothing on how it worked or if anyone else could do it."

Jiraiya smirked. "Yep, others can, but you need pretty good control over your chakra. Can you water-walk? Climb trees?"

"No and yes. I've got tree-climbing down, but it still takes a fair bit of effort for water-walking. It might just be Him screwing with my control though..."

"Practice while I'm away, and also try this. Its just the first step in learning the Rasengan, but I think you'll get it down fairly well." Naruto sat down, eight water balloons in front of him, and he watched intently despite his foreknowledge. "You gather Chakra in your hand, spin it, and make the balloon burst. You'll get a bit wet if you succeed, but that doesn't matter really. You're going to do this every day for the next month while I'm-"

At that, Jiraiya stopped and flinched as a blast of water hit him in the face. He opened his eyes, plucked a piece of rubber from his cheek, and glared hard at the blonde boy who sat, likewise soaked, and grinned like a Cheshire cat at him. "You-"

"Did it. Thanks, Ero-sensei!" Naruto chirped, grabbing another balloon and spinning the water in it until it flattened almost completely. "This is kinda fun..."

Jiraiya leant across the table to swat the Genin across the back of the head, only to get a face-full of cold water again. "DAMN IT, NARUTO!!"

* * *

Time meant nothing any more. Sasuke laid on his back on the floor of his cell lifelessly. Only the steady rise and fall of his chest gave away the boy was still alive. He had committed the lines in the stone to memory. Each wall. It was hard to follow the lines as they seemed to waver and move even as he moved his eyes along them, as if they didn't want to be read. He had fought the lines and won. One last victory for the soon-to-be-dead Uchiha.

Just like he had won his battle for power to help him kill his errant brother. He had gained the Mangekyou, but now laid in a prison hundreds of metres below the hard bedrock of Konoha awaiting his death. He wouldn't ever see sunlight again, nor have the chance to hunt his brother. Nor would he have chance to sneer at Naruto again.

What price victory...

The featureless stone dissolved behind him and he sat up straight, facing away immediately. He had learnt quickly that you did not try to resist the faceless ANBU interrogators unless you wanted it to hurt much more later on. He rocked slightly, awaiting the blindfold that would wrap about his eyes to stop him from using his Sharingan, Mangekyou or otherwise, and his cheek twitched involuntarily.

He waited.

And waited.

He grew more uncomfortable as time passed slowly, each heartbeat dragging on like an age. Still he waited, even as he heard no footsteps behind him that signalled the imminent darkness. He fidgeted a little, feeling as if spiders were wandering up his spine, and eventually dared to turn his head a little.

No reprimand came. He turned more, more and more until he faced the entrance to his cell. A single ANBU member stood, the mask displaying blue-ish whisker marks and the dark, round eye-pieces. Sasuke cocked his head in confusion, as still no words were spoken.

"Uchiha-dono." The words rang out from all around Sasuke, and he shrank back in on himself. The ANBU bowed low to him. "Would you come with me please, Uchiha-dono?"

Sasuke stood shakily, his knees weak. He opened his mouth and tried to question his escort, only to have his voice croak pathetically and earn himself a coughing fit. He fell forward, and the ANBU lunged. Instead of feeling the cold floor smash into his face, or the bite of steel in his gut, Uchiha Sasuke felt strong arms slide under his own and keep him upright. He raised his head, eyes wide in query, only to have the ANBU push him completely upright and brush dirt from the boy's shoulder.

"Orochimaru-sama sends his regards, and asks that you accompany me to Otogakure, Uchiha-dono."


	15. Chapter 14: Recuperation

**Recuperation**

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto fell out of his bed in a tangle of sheets, yelling loudly despite the early hour. He rolled twice, hit his head on the corner of his chest of drawers with a loud thwack, and fell back into the clutches of sleep. Sweat spots dotted his forehead.

His teeth ground hard, the muffled squeak as his molars moved against one another audible in the dead silence of his apartment only for it to stop as one sentence passed his lips, straight from his nightmare.

"Not the Ramen... Anything but that..."

* * *

Later, once the sun had risen and Naruto had rid himself of the pain from his headache, he had taken to the village shopping district on the east side.

He wandered from store to store, scorn on the face of most every shop-keeper, but still paid the exorbitant prices for spoiled goods that they demanded. It wouldn't do, after all, if he never bought anything from anywhere, regardless of the costs. He would be far more conspicuous in his absence than not. So he tolerated it.

He'd already nabbed some mould-covered bread, milk that would go off tomorrow were it not for the preserving qualities of the poison within, and a few fuzzy vegetables that had an urgent date with his bin. He knew, also, that he was being followed.

She'd been doing it for a while, following him that was, and although it had worried him a little at first he just ignored it. After all, what would she want with him other than the obvious? To mock him, possibly even blame him for some imagined indiscretion? No thank you, so he ignored the girl following him at a distance, peeping around shop doorways and using the other shoppers for cover when necessary. She'd get bored, eventually. He hoped.

* * *

Haruno Sakura was not prone to acts of insanity. She wasn't. Maybe not all the time...

Thus, she found herself following Naruto once more through the shopping district, even though there was no really good reason for it. Well, there _was_ a good reason, but she'd never admit it. Not to anyone apart from herself.

She was scared for Naruto. She had almost come to terms with Sasuke's betrayal, and understood that Naruto had been under close supervision because of his injuries, but still... He was being far too calm about the whole thing. Sasuke was going to be executed!

She knew she couldn't do anything about it either, but Naruto just... was being Naruto. He didn't seem to have any sort of... remorse or... or _anything_!

Sakura held back, observing. Maybe she'd find out what he was being so... so Naruto-like for.

* * *

Hyuuga Neji ran through the Jyuuken katas without pause, moving like he was submerged in syrup. He slowly brought his right hand up to his face and pressed it forward, fingers straight for a perfect lung strike. He swept his feet around and slow-slapped the clavicle of the imagined target in front of him with his left, and finished the turn to jab his right into the carotid artery. He continued, a vague sheen of sweat coating his bared arms, confident in his supremacy. He had defeated the heiress, although he had held back from killing her. Such an act would have dirtied his name as a prodigy and genius. Genii did not destroy their victims, they allowed them to see exactly how pathetic they were when compared to their betters.

He grunted gently as he span in slow motion, his arms flailing out to help expand the circle he would make should he have forced Chakra into the move. The Hakke Shou Kaiten was meant to be far above and beyond his skill, but having seen it performed he knew the intrinsics of the move and had reverse-engineered it for his own use. The Branch House genius beating a Main House heiress was a sweet victory, but still not sweet enough. Fate had decided it.

He pulsed Chakra to his eyes and felt the rush of apprehension that came with the Byakugan. It wasn't strictly allowed to be used within the boundaries of the Hyuuga estate, given in-Clan laws of privacy, but he was far enough away to not breach any of the walls with his vision. His lip curled in a snarl as he watched the defeated Heiress run through her own Jyuuken strikes in the training sand-pit over the wall that separated the Branch from the Main grounds. Her form was... sloppy, compared to his, but still somehow it would work. He hadn't admitted to anyone how many strikes she had gotten on him during their preliminary match during the Chuunin Exams, nor that the only reason he had scored those scars upon her face was that she had disabled a major Tenketsu in his right hand and had forced too much into his left to compensate.

He watched as she near-clumsily moved her feet in an echo of the Kaiten, obviously practising. If she had just that bit more conviction in her ability, he wouldn't have been the one facing that lazy shadow-user in the Finals.

Not that he'd tell anyone that.

* * *

Naruto stood in front of Ichiraku Ramen with a slack jaw. His eyes were wide in horror, and his 'shopping' lay on the floor where he had dropped it.

He fell to his knees, hands coming up to his head and grasping his hair tightly. Tears welled up in his eyes, and began running down his cheeks.

"Not the Ramen... Anything but that..." He whimpered, falling into the lowest bow he knew, reserved only for the Daimyo. His hands on the floor, shoulder-width apart, his forehead in the dirt, and his eyes squeezed tightly shut, he implored the Evil One for forgiveness.

"Iie, Naruto. No Ramen for a week!" Jiraiya proclaimed, finger raised to the sky to show his word was that of Kami's. At least it was, until Ichiraku Teuchi jumped the counter of his establishment, ran the short distance to his target and whacked the white-haired Sannin across the back of the head with a heavy ladle. Jiraiya fell heavily, and Naruto rose to his knees, looking in awe at his saviour.

Teuchi stood proudly, eyes squinted shut in disgust at Jiraiya's Heresy, the sun behind him blocked by the white cap he wore and his Miso-spotted apron fluttering in the light breeze. A gleam of sunlight ran the length of the Ladle of Justice, and sparkled once it reached the still-damp cup-like end.

"He," Teuchi began, his voice booming out like that of a God, "Is my best damned customer. Shut up, you fool!"

Naruto leapt to his feet, gathering his shopping and running to take his usual seat at the food stand, laughing and praising the old man's Hokage-like show of skill. Teuchi took the less-acrobatic route of entry, wandering to the side door and re-entering his workplace, a wry grin across his lips as natural order was restored to the world.

Jiraiya pushed himself off the floor spitting dirt from his mouth and rubbing the back of his head where there was surely a lump from that damned ladle. "We had a Kami-damned BET, you Ramen-obsessed freak!!"

* * *

Haruno Sakura got a few strange stares as she slid down the fence that her back was pressed against, her chuckles of mirth barely suppressed with the occasional snort making its way past her tightly-shut lips. Even if Naruto was acting strangely, in her opinion, that was WORTH following him all day for. Not many people got to see a Sannin taken out by a middle-aged civilian threatened with loss of business every day, after all...

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata sat in the centre of the training sand-pit upon a Tatami mat. The sand had, as per Clan rules, been raked back into its elegant 'ripple' design, and the roll-out pathway of coarse sackcloth had been put into place so anyone who wished to use the pit for meditation could.

It was something of a hobby, meditating after her practice. It was a shame that nobody would let her sit in the middle of a pit she had altered with her footwork, she believed, as surely anyone with experience of tracking could have taken a much-more critical view of their footwork with a window on how to improve. Being on the designated 'Scout' team made sure she had plenty of chance to perfect her tracking skills, even if they were only counted on report sheets as C-rank.

She sat, legs crossed, the wind ruffling her short hair, and her eyes closed. The veins around her eyes weren't prominent as she didn't have the Byakugan active, but what she lacked in sight when her lids were closed she made up for with hearing. She listened. She heard the rustle in the trees at the south end of the training grounds where the breeze tickled them and sent their leaves fluttering, she heard the low grunt and muffled thud as two Branch House retainers sparred beyond the high fence, and she heard slow, be-sandalled footsteps as someone came out to either meet her, berate her, or use one of the eight training pits.

As the footsteps grew closer she opened her eyes and hopped to her feet, careful not to disturb the carefully-raked sand beyond the edges of the mat. She walked slowly back to the relative safety of the stone pathway that led around the edges of all the pits, her cheeks flushing as she felt eyes watching her movements.

Hyuuga Hiashi walked calmly towards his daughter, a stern look upon his face. True, he always looked stern, but this was a bit sterner than usual. He watched the young girl almost tip-toe off the Tatami to the path he not-quite-strode along, and stopped so that she would come to him. He was not disappointed as the girl nervously walked up, bowed, and greeted him.

"Ohayo, Otousama, g-genki desu?"

Hiashi's frown grew imperceptibly. When would she, the Heiress to the proudest clan in Konoha, become strong enough to stop that infernal stuttering? It was annoying in a way that only people with much less intelligence could be when you had to explain the same thing to them several times.

"Hinata. How goes your practice?"

"A-Adequately, Otousama. I'm afraid I d-don't match Neji yet in my opinion, but I'm... w-working on it."

This time, Hiashi's scowl really did grow. Hinata shrank back, hands raising to meet in front of her and press her index fingers together. He schooled himself quickly though, once his eyes met those three small scars upon her cheek and flashed to the nearly-translucent skin at her collar. His eyes rove over his daughter's exposed flesh, the sleeveless training Kimono revealing the scores of scars just on her extremities, be they large or small. His frown lessened, became blank, then the corner of his mouth turned upwards for the first time in almost five months.

"I know, Hinata. Go and change your clothing, once I've finished here we shall have the evening meal. Inform your sister."

Hinata's mouth opened a little at the half-smirk that crossed her father's features before she remembered her manners and closed it. She bowed once more and walked off, barely able to stop herself from jogging in her excitement. _He smiled_!

Hiashi watched his daughter go over his shoulder, the frown now having returned to its rightful place. He pulled the Tatami mat to the walkway and, without removing his official robes, simply walked to the centre of the training pit and started his form.

He hoped she would stop stuttering soon. It had taken him to his later teenage years to manage, and the ridicule he had found directed his way from people who thought the 'stammering ice-box of a Hyuuga' was 'cute' had been almost insufferable.

Especially from that damned moron who had ended up becoming Hokage.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke staggered in front of the ANBU who had freed, or at least pretended to be freeing him. The dark-haired, gaunt boy stumbled every few steps as the cramping muscle in his right thigh threatened to give out on him, but he bore with the pain. He had read the unreadable Lights, he had killed his best friend, he was going to gain enough power to defeat Itachi. Pain was nothing compared to Itachi. Nothing.

He still fell flat on his face and broke his nose before the faceless ANBU could catch him.

Sasuke pushed himself up, blood streaming from his nostrils before reaching up, grasping his nose and jerking it sideways with a loud, sickening crunch. It wouldn't be pretty, but it would do until a medic-nin could heal it properly. What was a broken nose when compared to Itachi?

Sasuke felt a hand shove into his back to propel him forward faster, and he submitted to its will. He staggered that little bit faster, that little bit further forward, and drank in every detail of the tunnel he and his "Saviour" travelled through. Candles lined the walls in rust-free iron brackets, the stone façades scored with hundreds of small, wavering lines that probably had something to do with forbidden techniques long-forgotten. No matter, he took them in but did not absorb them as one would usually do with such strange surroundings. He schemed.

Were it to occur that his "rescuer" was in fact a fake, he had resolved to use his untrained Mangekyou upon the fool. Were it that he was a fake and he had led him into an execution chamber, Sasuke would still use the Mangekyou on every single one of the would-be witnesses to his death until either they were dead or he was. Were it-

His train of thoughts were interrupted as the ANBU grasped his shoulder and slammed him painfully into the wall. Sasuke's Sharingan sprang to life instantly, the twin tomoes spinning already in preparation of forming the Mangekyou, only to relax a small amount as the ANBU raised a finger to his... where Sasuke assumed his lips would be, and ran off into the depths of the tunnels that intersected the one he was in. Unable to go anywhere else, and with nothing more constructive to do, Uchiha Sasuke slid down the wall to sit on his ass and burnt the idiot-lines that marred the walls, ceiling and floor into his memory.

Maybe they would help him figure out what the Light had been saying to him.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto sat on his kitchen worktop. He looked down at his right hand, and the knotted scar tissue that replaced the point his ring finger on that hand had once occupied. It wasn't so bad, he supposed to himself, that it was gone. _I mean, what was -that- finger for, anyway?_

He soon found out when, the next morning just after sunrise, while half-asleep he reached into his refrigerator to grab the plastic milk carton by its little handle and succeeded only in stroking the container.

* * *

Sasuke had been rejoined by his escort soon after, but didn't question the blood that soaked the lowest hem of his brown robes. The boy walked on once more, his guide behind him occasionally nudging him left or right, or shoving him forwards if he slowed. The lines hadn't helped much, but surely it was just because he hadn't seen the rest of the lines? Once he had memorised all of the lines here, that would be enough.

There was one... symbol was not the right word. It was more like... an idea. An idea in lines. Yes, that was it, that he kept seeing. A shepherd's crook was what it looked like, were it to have been stabbed through the shaft near the curved head with a Kunai bent at ninety degrees. No matter. He would sketch it later, should he need to. He doubted it though. He saw it in the candle that sputtered a few feet away, in a swirl of dirt by his left foot, in the lines of the palm of his hand...

Reflected in the blank, staring eyes of the ANBU who had stepped in front of him, opened a heavy door in the ceiling, and stood ready to give him a boost to the surface above.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto grouched at his kitchen table. He had gotten himself a bowl filled with milk and cereals but it had taken him three attempts before he got the milk out of the refrigerator thanks to being half-asleep and lacking the 'Milk-grabbing' finger. He was damned glad it hadn't been a more important one! He had just taken a mouthful, the nice cold milk adding flavour to the baked grains as he crunched them between his teeth, when Hatake Kakashi jumped through his kitchen window and slapped him around the back of the head with enough force to make him spit out his mouthful and dunk his head into his breakfast.

Naruto froze in the act of sitting down, glared over his shoulder at the open window, and shuffled around the table to sit out of the way of his sensei's landing. Sure enough, a few minutes later as Naruto was tucking into his breakfast, still grumbling of course, Kakashi landed without a mishap and fixed the boy with a hard stare.

"I just heard, Sa-" Kakashi began, urgency in his voice when Naruto held up his left hand, fingers together in the classic gesture of "stop". Kakashi cocked his head and tapped his foot impatiently as Naruto finished crunching through his mouthful of cereal, and turned his head to his teacher once he had finished.

"Sasuke escaped. I know. You told me."

Kakashi rolled his eye and swore under his breath. Nothing fazed this damned kid!

"Yes it does."

"Oh, you mind-read now too?!"

"No, just you were going to say it out loud.

"For crying out-" The pair chorused. "Will you- Quit it! I'm serious!"

"Let me finish my breakfast. He got out last night under the cover of darkness, right? So what's the point in rushing off before I've even had breakfast when chances are he'll be long-gone? I mean, he was in ANBU Headquarters, the secure area. That means he had help from the inside, or someone so powerful they had either already been there or that they managed to blast their way through hundreds of ANBU and would still have energy enough to get the hell out of here before reinforcements arrived."

Kakashi glared balefully at his student. He sat in what would have been Naruto's chair, huffed and crossed his arms petulantly.

_My students are assholes. One tries to kill the other, the not-dead one is bloody apathetic when the one who tried to kill him escapes, and the last one has become a damnable recluse after she found out about the first one tried to kill the second. It's a good thing I was gre- Silver-haired before I passed these fools or I'd be it for sure by now..._

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke felt the wind upon his face, felt it move his lank and greasy hair, and smelled the forest around him. It made him sick to his stomach. To think he had once enjoyed this scent. It was an affront to him now. His eyes stared out over Konoha from his perch atop the dark hillside, the village lit by street lights and the moon alone.

_I'll show all of you._

The ANBU just behind and to the right of him placed a hand upon the boy's shoulder and nodded once. Sasuke sneered a final sneer at the contemptible place he had once called home, brought his fingers up in a half-seal and disappeared from sight in a swirl of leaves. The ANBU removed its mask, and slid the over-large round glasses upon his face. Yakushi Kabuto smirked, waved cheekily at Konoha far below, and pressed his finger to the bridge of his glasses as he dissolved into sand that blew away in the wind.

Orochimaru-sama would be pleased.

* * *

_AN: Right, before any more people crucify me for not letting Naruto have his finger back;_

_There are multiple ways in which losing a finger would not stop Naruto from being a Ninja, using hand seals, or indeed much of anything. I am not condemning him to a life of Taijutsu, Fuinjutsu and the Rasengan, because that would be counter-productive to the story and a bit silly really._

_Hand seals are shapes made using your hands to assist in the moulding of Chakra, that is they are a visual representation to help your mind and body associate a certain hand-sign to a chakra mould, sort of like pressing each key on a Japanese keyboard will place a hiragana letter until the full word is spelt and the Kanji is used to replace it. You can perform half-seals, that is you teach your body to manipulate Chakra based on five fingers as opposed to ten, and the form is essentially the same. I'm fairly sure you would be able, using that logic, to form a nine-tenths seal and get away with moulding Chakra a lot easier than with only a half seal, but still harder than a full seal._

_Naruto is done healing. Kyuubi is done healing him. I actually want to show that the ninja way is a hell of a lot more dangerous than its shown, and I think this is actually a bit of a departure from the usual. I intend to let nobody get away without being damaged in some way. I made Uke-chan INSANE for Kami's sake!_

_Now, it will be hard for Naruto in the future to use hand-seals, I'm not going to pull a Deus Ex Machina and re-grow a finger when I could make it so much harder for him if he didn't. That's just how I am, I suppose... Naruto has the potential (and the means, in this Fic) to be akin to a Kage in a very short time. If I didn't knock him, or allow his friends to suffer the same fate, it would probably come across as either corny or unrealistic, and I'm not really wanting that. Naruto can still be a ninja, he'll still be damned good at it, but its just that little bit harder than it was before, which ought to push him to become better than he was._

_I hope this has answered a couple of questions you might have been about to ask, and if not, ask them anyway and I'll try my damnedest! :P_

_Ja mata ne!_

* * *

_EDIT: For those of you who do not wish to read a rant about complaints I received for this story so far, please skip the chapter entitled "Rant in E Major" using the drop-down menu below, and select "Chapter 15: HOUSE!" instead._ _Arigatou gozaimasu!_

* * *


	16. AN Extended: Rant in E Major

I'd like to take this opportunity to break from my "Illogical" story and just break some news to all of you who have reviewed within the last few hours;

This is MY Fanfic.

I know. Shocking, isn't it?

I'll explain my... disappointment in a minute, but I'd like to go into the reason I'm a little peeved just now.

So, here I am, writing my first Fan Fiction and posting what, essentially, was a half-assed idea that came to me out of nowhere really, and for some reason people liked it. I have reviews stating it was well-written, that there were interesting plot hooks, that people couldn't wait to see what happens next even.

I don't much care for those, beyond thanking people and holding those nice reviews to my chest, because I found early on that writing work is hard, especially scripts for films be they long or short.

I care mainly about the negative reviews, because they tell me how I can change my writing style to make it better, how I can improve, how I can please YOU, the Reader.

Thats the one thing I strive for, because up until when I first posted this Fic, I was a Reader too. I never really reviewed anything but the fics I had the greatest respect or loathing for. But those I reviewed well, I felt really deserved praise, and those that I despised always had a good reason such as bad grammar, inconsistent storyline, terrible english, or a whole gamut of reasons.

And now we come to the main gripes. My Fic is, quite obviously, an Alternate Universe Fic. It practically screams it in the summary. I like to think my Fic is original to some extent.

I can't stand it, though, when other AU Fics, or Fics in general just pull Deus Ex Machina excuses out of their arseholes without any sort of reason. "Oh, Naruto got split into three? Well, Kyuubi can fix that!". I have had reviews since my last update telling me I should start writing like that.

Not a chance in Hell.

* * *

1st Point: Naruto's lost finger

I lost Naruto's finger. I could have given him the Sharingan, Rinnegan, made him the Yondaime Incarnate, given him the powers of God as envisioned by Western civilization, made him a Shinigami, given him a sword, I could have lost him his sight, ANYTHING! But no.

I removed a largely non-essential digit from his right hand as a plot device.

And I've been criticised for it. Constantly. Lets forget the fact that Kyuubi couldn't heal ONE injury from before now for a minute, and look at the finger-loss in more depth.

Naruto had been pinned to a wall by kunai, used a whole bunch of Chakra to both fight Sasuke and then summon a frog, before being stabbed in the chest. That's usually pretty serious. In the middle of an Invasion where medics are stretched thin on the ground, where the Kyuubi has to bring him back from the brink of death THREE TIMES and then has to spend a couple of days healing a very complicated and messily-caused spinal cord injury, you have the guts to tell me I can't say Kyuubi thought a damned finger wasn't COMPLETELY essential to Naruto's health?

Yes, any medic or even any person worth their SALT would pick up a severed finger and take it with the person who had lost it to a hospital, or medic.

Kakashi found Naruto pinned to a wall and dying. In the midst of a battle. I once lost a piece of BLANK paper after putting it on a BLACK bed sheet and looking away for ten seconds, so god knows how confusing a bloody INVASION must be!

"Naruto's dying! I'll just pick up this severed finger for them to stitch back on later..."

Fucking foolish, is my opinion.

* * *

2nd Point: Sasuke escaping

Yes, Sasuke escaped from the ANBU Headquarters, which is not anywhere near as secure as a Ninja prison. Its bloody impressive, but it isn't a long-term holding centre for mad bastards because they all (Like Uke-chan) go insane.

I'm punishing Sasuke for his indecency, I'm making sure he suffers in the long run, but I have people telling me I can't have him escape with Kabuto's help. Kabuto fooled the ANBU into thinking he was one of them. That means he's either incredibly lucky, or just skilled enough to do it and not arouse suspicion from the elite hunter corps. I'm thinking Skilled.

Why use a Blindfold? Why not. Konoha is a fairly pacifist village. Ever notice how in the West here we don't cut the hands off of people who steal? How we don't remove the penises of men who rape? What if we were to, say, cut out someone's eyes for looking at child porn? With all this in mind, why the hell would someone cut out a child's eyes, regardless of how powerful the kid is?

How many people have broken out of "Inescapable" prisons on their own? How many had help from a Guard??

* * *

3rd Point: Reality checking

You'll criticise MY Work for everything that isn't PRECISELY Canon, but you'll let shit like Male Pregnancy off the hook? I don't really think I need EXPLAIN this little bit more.

* * *

I'd like it very much for those few of you who review without thinking (or punctuation sometimes, for that matter) to think VERY hard before you read Chapter 15 when I post it. If you're just going to slag off my plot without making any sort of constructive criticism, then PM me. I'd much prefer to get angry over a PM, in all honesty. If you're going to read it, review it, tell me what you think I could improve upon, then by all means feel free.

I don't CARE if I lose Readers now because I've come across as a prick, or if I seem hoity-toity. I care about my work and I am getting annoyed with how many people seem to think they know MY work better than I do.

I challenge ANY of you, right this very minute, to ask my permission to re-write my Fic according to YOUR little rules and reasons. I'll tell you right now, I'll allow you to do it, and I'll even post a duplicate copy myself with full blessings. Just stop telling me WHY I'm wrong, and start telling me HOW I can IMPROVE like the Review system was meant for, instead of being fernickity little sods who seem to enjoy picking apart MY work for being bad when there's a couple of thousand of REALLY bad ones out there.

Hope those of you left enjoy the Fic, and I hope this hasn't spoilt it for you. I'll post Chapter 15 very soon, and there'll be a competition of sorts that I thought of earlier. Thanks.


	17. Chapter 15: HOUSE!

_AN: I'd like to apologise most profusely for the Rant in E Major that I posted last night. I was indeed angry, but this wasn't really an excuse. I shall be posting (at the bottom of the page once Chapter 15: House! is done) a few choice quotes from PM's and Reviews that I'd like to discuss a little._

_So on to the Fic! I hope you all, especially poor LordPancho and those others like him who less than an hour after adding "Next" to his Story Alerts received a notification leading them to Rant in E Major._

_So far, one person has accepted the Challenge: _**SleepingLife**

_His Fic is called "Step" and is available via this link: _**/s/4484115/1/StepI**

_I wish you luck in your endeavours._

_I understand that, technically, leaving "Rant in E Major" is actually able to have my Fic removed, but I will be placing a statement in the chapter preceeding it that anyone who doesn't wish to read it may skip through to this chapter._

_Sumimasen, Minna..._

* * *

**HOUSE!**

* * *

Horse ran his long fingers over the footprint depressed into the soft earth. The hill he and his two fellows were investigating was one of the few locations devoid of traps that surrounded the emergency exit for ANBU Headquarters that was meant to allow for teams of ANBU to assemble and stage guerilla warfare from were Konoha to be attacked, as it had been a few days before.

The footprint was interesting. A Konoha nin-sandal belonging to a male, unless he was mistaken about the shape and curve of the front section, size ten. The wearer had arched feet, given the weaker depression in the centre, but put more weight forward on his toes. Like he was ready to spring off and attack... or ready to jump at the slightest noise.

The faceless ANBU stood and looked out over Konoha, the blank eye-pieces of his mask not doing much to disguise his pensiveness.

"If we are to continue, we must gather supplies for a much longer mission." Horse informed, tilting his head in deference to the leader of his search party. The man who appeared beside him with no noise nodded once and deepened his frown.

"I'll leave shortly under the pretence of official business whilst gathering any information I can on the break-out, although I doubt anything will crop up. Horse, take your squad back to your normal duties and await my orders. I'll contact you in the usual manner."

The ANBU nodded and signalled his cohorts. The three ANBU disappeared, leaving the man in the clearing on his own. He sighed and began rubbing his temples with a thumb and forefinger. This was... Troublesome just wasn't the right word. Aggravating. Why he had ever agreed to this sort of work when he was busy with so many other things he didn't know.

_Damn you Jiraiya-sama_, Hyuuga Hiashi scowled, _even after Team 'Pervert' is gone you still get me to do your share of the work._

* * *

Jiraiya took a large bite out of the Dango that he held in front of his face and grinned like the fool he was meant to be. Internally, however, his mind was weighing up every little fact that had cropped up in his short time within Konoha. Hiashi was leaving on 'Clan Business' in a few days and would contact Jiraiya's information network for him while the Pervert himself would spend the time arguing his denial of the Hokage position and convince the Advisers that Tsunade would be a better choice. Team Hiashi, whom Jiraiya knew were in on it, would request a month-long border patrol mission to give them free movement within all of Fire Country to hunt down the Uchiha brat and whoever had helped him escape.

Konoha might be a 'soft' village, but it made sure any problems it caused were dealt with as expediently as was possible. Even now, Jiraiya knew, there was a new page being made for Bingo Books everywhere, and it was only the second of its kind. The second to ever bear the name 'Uchiha'.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto, whilst half-asleep, stroked the side of his milk carton, closed the refrigerator, and then screamed in frustration when he realised what he had done.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi languished on the roof of the Yamanaka Flower Shop. He didn't have any special reasons for choosing this particular spot, it simply... felt right. He saw the curtains in the window he was watching out of the corner of his eye twitch a small amount before jerking open, a pink-haired Genin who had shown so much promise glaring out at the world with her hair stuck up in very odd ways.

He sighed to himself and returned his eyesight to his precious book. Jiraiya's books were very well-written, if completely filthy, but they were that little isle of happiness in a sea of bad news recently.

Kakashi was... disappointed. His brats were growing up that little bit faster than they should, even given the enormously steep learning curve that came with being Ninja. Sasuke had left, taking with it all chance of ever making up for all his harsh words to Obito those many years ago. Sakura was in a funk and getting through it all on her own, in spite of any offers of assistance. Naruto was... Actually, what was Naruto?

Kakashi blinked as he realised he didn't have a clue what his blonde student actually _was _feeling about it all... The boy should have been the worst affected, given his friendship with Sasuke and the latter's 'killing' of him and all...

Kakashi snapped his book shut and pushed himself to his feet, resolving to confront Naruto immediately. This would not do.

* * *

Deep within a cavern formed of stone and laced with degraded copper pipes, where the steady drips of bilge water from ill-formed seals along the pipelines echo throughout the expansive space, there are iron bars hundreds of feet tall, and scores of yards wide. Behind it, in a permanent human knee-high depth of the filthy brine, lies the most powerful of all the Bijuu ever to exist. Kyuubi no Yoko.

The massive fox-demon swished three of his nine tails in barely suppressed annoyance, his lips curling back to bare his storey-tall canines.

His _container_ was imperfect. Kyuubi even thought the word with a mental spit, the taste of it leaving a horribly bitter taste upon his tongue, much like the flesh of these 'Humans'. He had endured the soiling his mouth had endured to continue to his goal, until the End. The golden-furred one that had rose above its upstart kin upon the back of the slimy one and 'Sealed' his essence into the smaller, almost fur-less one had never foreseen the current predicament.

The roar that shook the winding corridors reverberated on into seeming eternity. Kyuubi gnawed angrily upon one of the many iron bars, a small delve worn into one of his many fangs from the impervious metal, and growled a low, sonorous growl. It was the growl of the worst kind of beast. The kind that could cause any man, no matter how powerful, to quake in fear. It was the growl of a creature that cared not for time nor existence. It would destroy until all was destroyed.

It vexed the giant kitsune. He had healed and healed and healed, repairing the most grievous damage inflicted upon his _container_ since the faceless ones had torn into the Seal so many, many meals ago, but still it was imperfect. Damaged. _Flawed._ At the time, Kyuubi had seen an opportunity, a weakness. More of his energy had flowed beyond the Seal than had flowed before, but it was... not used. Ever. It was like it was... gone. Such a thing could not happen.

Kyuubi glared at the Seal, written in man-form upon the cage that held him. The small tear that breached its otherwise pristine form mocked him.

He would make his _container_ whole once more. Unless it performed better this way. Unless by being damaged, it became more useful.

Those who were once Alphas that were challenged and defeated, but did not die, served the new Alpha until their time came for death. Perhaps this was the way it was with humans, also?

Kyuubi cared not, as long as he got to finish what he had started. Destroying the dark-furred ones with eyes the colour of spilt blood.

* * *

"Naruto?"

Kakashi looked around, confused, as to his student's whereabouts. He glanced around the kitchen of the small apartment he had jumped through an open window to enter, and called out again, hoping for an answer.

The answer hit him like Mitarashi Anko on a Sake binge. _Naruto's not home_. Kakashi raised a hand and lay his face in it, the sheer simplicity of the solution, especially given the blonde's _unique_ talents. The Ex-ANBU turned to leave when a slight rustle and the curious pins-and-needles prickling of a nearby Chakra made him halt in his tracks. He turned, looking over his left shoulder and then his right, before shrugging and taking another step towards the window when Naruto began chuckling from somewhere behind him.

Uzumaki Naruto, once Kakashi turned about again, was sat at the far-end of his kitchen table. Two cups of instant Ramen sat on the table in front of him, still steaming with the heat of the boiled water that was slowly being absorbed into the savoury noodles and soy-reproduced meats and vegetables.

The Jounin sensei nodded at the unspoken offer and sat heavily in the chair to his student's left, pulling one of the cups towards himself and lowering his mask with a sigh.

"You already know my question, don't you?" He asked, not looking up from his steaming Ramen.

Naruto nodded, poking and prodding his own meal with a pair of chopsticks in a vain effort to make it absorb the water faster.

"I don't much mind... Sasuke was... my best friend. I feel betrayed, hurt, but I feel glad I was able to survive so I can try to bring him back. I mean, it'd be better that we try and get him to come back willingly, and stand that small chance of having his sentence reduced to life instead of the death penalty..."

Kakashi pointed lazily at the Genin with his unsnapped chopsticks. "You do know that he's classed as a Traitor, and the orders are to kill on sight if the opportunity presents itself?"

Naruto nodded slowly and sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping. "I'll just have to try and get to him before the Hunter-nins find him, won't I?"

* * *

Jiraiya reached Training Ground Twenty-Four when the moon was at its highest in the night sky above Konoha. He smiled with nostalgia, his mind's eye picturing his three wonderful students hard at work doing what they did best.

There, by the three logs common to every training field in Konoha, stood Hyuuga Hiashi. Stoic, cold, and stumbling over his words like a shy child talking to his crush while glaring at anyone who dared to show any lack of respect to him for being a 'Genius'.

Here by the tree-line at the edge of the small clearing sat Aoi, the small silver-haired girl blushing as her blustering and over-loud sensei prepared to embarrass her once again by banging on about how much of a 'Super-Pervert' he was, even as she read a book "Aunt Tsunade" had loaned him to give to the girl.

And finally, there was the boy who would grow to be the Yondaime Hokage, slyly tying pink ribbons into Hiashi's hair with half of his torso still melded into the log the Hyuuga boy leaned a shoulder against by a Genjutsu.

Jiraiya shook the feeling and images away, grunting and mumbling about 'damned kids', 'brats' and 'runaways'. He wandered to the log that 'Hiashi-ch-ch-chan' had been slouching against and knelt down, picking up a fist-sized white rock that had surely come from the Hyuuga Estate, given the marble-like sheen that covered it instead of moss like any normal rock in the training area would, and palmed the small slip of parchment hidden underneath.

Jiraiya stood with a groan, his joints not moving as easily as they once had, and unfurled the coarse paper. His eyes scanned the kanji written upon it, recognising the perfect form of each symbol as coming from the hand of his second most-prized student, and deciphered the message hidden 'underneath the underneath'. A simple phrase with so many meanings; in this case it meant a message hidden within a code, that was itself hidden within a code. The basis of Team Pervert itself.

_Successors depart, one seventh upon a quarter of twelve, seeking the Seconds of Two and Three._

Jiraiya cursed under his breath. Hiashi was as on the ball now as ever, despite his long-term break from service as a Ninja. Team Hiashi was leaving in a little over a day to find the Uchiha boy or any trace of Orochimaru.

The white-haired Sannin held the note between the finger and thumb of his right hand and channelled a small amount of chakra to his mouth, exhaling it as a low flame that incinerated the note and, if he was brutally honest, scorched his fingertips. He waved his hand in the air in an attempt to cool his fingers, but gave up after a moment.

The hunt was on. Now it was time to launch his own.

* * *

The dead hours of the morning found Uzumaki Naruto dripping with fear-laden sweat, his covers already kicked aside in favour of the cold air that came through the open bedroom window. He leapt up with a scream, the Kunai he had kept under his pillow despite his almost-constant nightmares flying across the room in an instant, finally ridding the Dracaena at the foot of his bed of its upper lengths. The blonde panted, wiping the fluids that seeped from his skin from his forehead with the back of his arm, and cursed himself liberally for 'killing' his plant.

He showered to remove the stink of his fear from his body, changed his nightclothes for the feel of fresh, clean cloth about his flesh, but nothing he tried could rid his mind of the only thing he had remembered from the dream that woke him;

The twin tomoe spinning within a blood-red Sharingan eye.

* * *

Orochimaru sneered in disgust at the sight that greeted him through the vision-slit of the heavy metal door between him and his latest acquisition. The Uchiha boy, the child he wished to have as his new Vassal, was just as damaged and irreparable as Kimimaru. What was he to do now?

The Snake Summoner slammed the small panel of metal that hid the view from the rest of the world shut with a snarl, and turned on his heel to storm off down the corridors. After that old bastard had taken his last body's arms with him into the Afterlife, Orochimaru had had to take another body before he could break the child out of prison, thanks to the superb efforts of Kabuto. The grey-haired youth had surpassed himself in fooling the ANBU that he was one of them, his Suna-birthed abilities in Doton techniques giving him a distinct advantage over the Konoha fools in a place hewn into hard stone. Coupled with the fact they hadn't seen the traitor in their midst until they were dead, and the plan was almost beautiful in its execution.

At least until the Uchiha had been brought back to his current outpost, muttering about lights and carving idiot-symbols into anything he could with Kunais, Senbon, even his own hands in the case of the dirt beneath his feet. It was almost enough to make the Sannin's skin crawl and his stomach turn.

Still, the boy would prove useful just as Kimimaru would. The damaged mind, as long as it was purely a psychological deficiency and not a physical one, would still be able to serve as Orochimaru's host-flesh.

When it did... it would be glorious.

* * *

Jiraiya and Naruto stood in the mission assignment room, not greeted by the smiling faces of the Sandaime Hokage and Umino Iruka, but instead by the stern faces of the Advisers.

Naruto tuned out the words, already knowing he and his new mentor were to find another of the Sannin called Tsunade, and fidgeted with the fluff within his orange pants' pockets. His now-usual ensemble of the pants, blue nin-sandals and black t-shirt were joined by a thinly-strapped leather bandoleer holding a trio of Sealing Scrolls which contained his camping and rough weather gear. He was aware of Jiraiya nodding to the elderly man and woman behind the paper-strewn desk, and bowed accordingly before turning to follow the older Ninja from the room.

"Uzumaki-san?" came the voice of the woman.

"Hai?" the blonde replied, half-turning to look upon her hard face.

"If you are... unsuccessful in your attempts to convince Tsunade-san to return and take the position of Godaime Hokage, you are to do your best to convince Jiraiya-san to take the post on her behalf. Understood?"

Naruto fixed the old woman with a stare, and clenched his right hand into a tight fist. "Don't worry. I promise... I'll bring him back. No matter the cost."

* * *

_AN: There we go, all done for this instalment! I'd like to share with you, if I may, one or two choice reviews that stood out from amongst all the others I received the last couple of days since posting "Rant in E Major"._

_Firstly, there was a short discourse between myself and _**Rukoh**_ that led to this wonderful little preview of a VERY "Dark!Naruto" Fic straight from his brain and to my fingers. Auteur Theory be damned._

_This is probably the first M-rated piece I've written in this story so far, so any younger readers who think it might not be suitable for them had better not scroll down any further._

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke screamed in pain, bloody tears streaming down his face as the toad sat upon his brow bit through his left eyelid. 'Toads don't even HAVE teeth!' yelled the last rational part of his mind through the haze of agony. Approximately thirty toads of all colours and sizes pinned his wretched body to the ground, and his lifeblood dribbled from the hundreds of bites and tears in his flesh.

Uzumaki Naruto grinned wryly as his former friend's body began shuddering in its death-throes, the cries ceasing as the toads he had summoned and manipulated using Kyuubi's Youki ate through the stuckup boy's lungs and intestinal tract to send a wave of barely-processed shit flooding into his ruptured organs.

"Sakura-chan..." The blonde demon container cooed, turning his head slowly before walking to where the girl stood frozen in horror. The pink-haired Genin shook her head in disbelief, the slow and drawnout death of her crush being too much for her mind to handle.  
"You're looking a little pasty, Sakura-chan... It must be that diet depriving you of Iron... Let me help you with that..."

Sakura didn't have chance to scream or begin running before Naruto had bitten his thumb and streaked his blood along a tattoo that spiralled his right forearm. Almost instantly the ground beneath her feet became unstable as hundreds of small slugs were conjured forth from the Summon Realm, their soft slimy bodies providing enough lubrication to send her slipping backwards onto her backside.

Naruto grabbed a handful of the small slugs, his skin blistering as the acidic slime of the invertibrates ate into his flesh and the Kyuubi healed it.

Sakura watched helplessly as Naruto approached. The slugs she had landed upon had burst, a fresh layer of their deadly slime burning through the back of her clothes and melting her skin and muscles within moments before it was neutralised through the dilution her liquidised tissues made possible. Naruto  
grasped the girl's mouth with his free hand and clasped it tightly, holding it open. She screamed to no avail, and Naruto lowered himself almost lovingly close while straddling her incapacitated body.

"You really shouldn't diet so much, Sakura-chan... it makes you too weak to fight back... Let me help you."

With that, he began stuffing the life-threatening slugs into her mouth and pinching her nose closed to force her to swallow.

Naruto watched, fascinated, as Sakura's lips dissolved. The flesh bubbled and ran down her face in a disgusting parody of melting candlewax, and he  
sighed in contentment as her cheeks were eaten away and many of the slugs he had placed in her mouth slid out and landed next to her head, burning her hair as they went. He stroked his still-healing hand over her forehead, brushing her fringe out of her eyes, and smiled as the next object to slide from her ruined face was identified by his eyes as her badly destroyed tongue.

Sakura had died in excruciating pain, unable to scream as her gullet and windpipe had been reduced to sore-ridden, ragged holes in her carcass. Sasuke was naught but a skeleton now, the toads fighting amongst themselves for his precious Sharinganholding eyes.

A pity, Naruto thought, he had so looked forward to forcing Sakura to deflower Sasuke's anal virginity before he killed them for their disgusting  
behaviour those many years ago when Team Seven was still together. Oh well... it just meant more time for him to "play" with the rest of those fools who deserved nothing more than the eternal suffering of their souls in Hell.

They would soon see how much the container of the Kyuubi remembered of his youth.

* * *

_Hope you enjoyed that as much as he did._

**BrazeRancor** _next, with his very poignant missive of support;_

There there pats god always smites flamers with holy... well... flame.  
Until then, make them drink Castor Oil.

_That made me chuckle, and indeed helped calm me down and as such, has earned him the merit needed to appear with a thank you. Now, the opening line of a review that quite literally sent me into hysterics, given the time it was received (after many comments about Naruto's loss of a finger had already been written to me) and the tone it was delivered in._

**enderverse**: People COMPLAINED about the finger thing?

_I don't mind admitting I had problems seeing the screen to read the rest of his review thanks to the tears of hysterics that were flowing free._

_So, now that this is over with, i would like to thank EVERYONE who reviewed and PM'd, be it in indignation, to commend me for my Rant, or even to apologise for perceiving themselves as instigators of the problems that got me so worked up over. Thank all of you, and those who did apologise are more than forgiven and welcome to review again at any time, as is their right._

_I'll see you all again soon with Chapter 16, and I hope you all enjoyed Chapter 15._

_Don't forget to look up "Step" by "SleepingLife" and give it a read and review if you have chance!_

_Ja mata ne!_


	18. Chapter 16: The Hunt

_AN: I have to say I was a little curious as to why I kept getting error messages whenever I went to check out _**SleepingLife**_'s story, "_**Step**_", until I received a PM from him telling me he had took it down and re-posted it so he could make some changes to the grammar, spelling, flow, and overall feel of it. _**SleepingLife**_'s story is now available via the link: _**/s/4489310/1/Step**

_Also, _**Rukoh **_has taken it upon himself to create a dark!Naruto Fic based on the short that I came up with during our prolonged discourse on the horror of Chiyo/Sakura pairings. I have Beta'd the first chapter for him, and he has posted it on FF for your enjoyment. _

_The link is: _**/s/4489802/1/DarkArts**

_I hope you all enjoy these two pieces of work as much as I have so far._

_Now, I do have a bone to pick, but it can wait until the end of "Chapter 16: The Hunt"._

* * *

**The Hunt**

* * *

Hyuuga Hiashi bounded gracefully through the trees surrounding Konoha, the loose edges of his pristine kimono flapping in the winds generated by his travel. His escort, four members of the Branch House, were pressing themselves to keep pace. Not much, Hiashi knew, but just enough that he could give them the slip once inside his apparent destination without fear of them growing curious and attempting to disturb their leader.

Even so, Hiashi added a little more power to his jumps between the tree branches. Best to make sure, after all.

* * *

Horse, Dragon and Rat stood in a rough semi-circle, their faces covered by ANBU masks matching their appointed Zodiac call-signs. Their heads swivelled almost as one, owlishly, to take in their surroundings before the trio turned to face one another and lowered themselves to their haunches.

"There are no signs of camp having been made, nor any sign of anyone passing through apart from this small amount of grass which has been compressed. A small body to make such an imprint, but the lack of blood or remains along with the lack of animal tracks means this wasn't just a deer that had been brought down either. A child, is my guess..." Rat reeled off, her voice lilting with a twang not local to Konoha. She inclined her head a little, the unspoken question evident; _what do we do now?_

"Dragon," Horse began, continuing once the other male's eye-slots were upon him. "You head west of here and see if you can pick up a trail of some kind. Rat will go east and I'll go north. Konoha is to the south, so if we lose contact through the earpieces we'll head back first to here, and then the village. Clear?"

The two ANBU beside Horse "hai"d in agreement before turning and melting into the trees. Horse watched the two go, crunched the knuckles of his right hand against his left palm, and headed off himself. This was going to be a hard search, if the hunted was this skilled at hiding their tracks.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto wandered along the dirt track behind Jiraiya, bored out of his skull. He had already tried passing the time by juggling Kunai, but the white-haired nin had relieved him of his weapons after a few minutes when Naruto started throwing them into the air at a seventy-degree angle then Shunshin'ing to catch them on their downwards trajectories. _Spoil-sport_, the blonde grouched.

Jiraiya himself had offered a few things to help the journey go quicker; Icha Icha Paradise, a skewer of Dango, Icha Icha Paradise: Limited Edition, a rubber ball for Naruto to practise the Rasengan with, an autographed copy of Icha Icha Paradise with personalised foreword by the Legendary Sannin himself, etcetera, etcetera...

In the end, Naruto settled for wandering behind the perverted old man with his hands on his head and a pout on his lips. He had tried juggling his scrolls, but Jiraiya had threatened to take those away too, and so the Genin had had to cease his impromptu entertainment.

"How long is this going to take, anyway?"

Jiraiya slowed his pace and looked over his shoulder, the blonde kid grinning from ear to ear with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "About a week to get to the next gambling town... why?"

Naruto's face turned to display pure innocence, his eyes pointed up and to the left. "Just wondering, Jiraiya-sensei... Nothing to worry about."

The Sannin immediately felt a shiver go down his spine. _This is NOT good..._

* * *

"Orochimaru-sama... are you sure about this?"

"Kabuto-kun... Are you questioning my intentions?"

"I-Iie, Orochimaru-sama. I'll see to the preparations immediately."

* * *

Hiashi 'hn'ed as he saw his four guards were asleep. It was not late into the night, but still his bodyguard contingent were snatching what rest they needed. The Clan leader deactivated his Byakugan without a word and leapt from the window frame into the streets outside.

They had reached their destination within a matter of hours, but the pace that the Patriarch had set had took a heavy toll upon the energy of his four companions. The small two-room apartment suited the needs of the Hyuuga while he visited to 'negotiate a beneficial trade deal', and the heavy floor-to-ceiling curtain suited the need for privacy from his cohorts. Hiashi's feet touched the floor with barely a whisper, and he immediately began walking his steady, stately walk, face held high and shoulders straight.

Hyuuga did not run unless there was a dire need, after all. It would be... unseemly.

* * *

Horse's respect for his prey was growing by the minute. Dragon had found only the barest hint of a footprint, the same shape and size as the one found in Konoha's boundaries, but it was the best any of Team Hiashi had found yet. The moon was high in the sky, thankfully full enough to reflect some of the sunlight from the opposite side of the Earth down to light the ANBU squad's way, but not so bright as to ruin their chances of a stealthy approach to... wherever they were headed.

Rat called a stop and the three Hunter-nin took to the trees, meeting on one of the sturdier boughs of an ages-old Oak. Soldier Pills were handed out, crunched between teeth, and ANBU masks were put back in place immediately.

If only to spare themselves the pain of looking at one another's horribly mutilated faces.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto sat upon his unfurled sleeping bag with his right knee brought up towards his chin, his right arm draped lazily across the joint, and his left angled straight down behind him for balance. He raised the fist-sized rubber-ball he gripped between the pads of his fingers and thumb, turning his wrist to investigate the full surface of the bouncy orb.

He sighed dejectedly as the moonlight from above made the scar tissue across the knuckle of his ring finger seemed to turn silver, the hint of bone beneath the thin skein of knotted tissue seeming to stare back at his half-lidded eyes accusingly.

He wanted to scratch it. He really, really did. It itched like nothing had ever itched before, and it was about to make him scream in frustration.

His right finger was still there, demanding to be scratched.

Naruto had caught himself doing it three times now. His left hand had, unbidden, crossed to his right and scratched at thin air. It was driving him mad.

The blonde's eyes widened in horror as a thought struck him; what if it affected his hand-seals?!

Naruto stole a frightened look at the white-haired ninja laid in his own sleeping bag a few feet away. Heavy snores rumbled from him occasionally, but they weren't forced as far as the blonde could tell. He got to his feet as quietly as he could, clenching and unclenching the rubber ball in his right hand to try and put off the insistent nagging of his missing finger, and wandered off into the forest that surrounded their camp to practice a few quiet Jutsu.

Jiraiya made sure to give the boy at least five minutes after wandering off before he stood and followed, hoping his 'research' telescope could let him see farther than Naruto could See.

* * *

_I am... out of practice with Jiraiya-sama's information network_, Hiashi was forced to admit as he ducked another thrown Saké bottle. His right arm lanced out of its own accord, catching the wielder of a bar stool in the throat with a weak Jyuuken strike that caused the man to fall back, dropping the stool and vomiting uncontrollably as his gullet spasmed.

"I merely asked you for information on behalf of the Gama-Sennin." The Hyuuga leader stated coolly, even as he bent at the waist to send his upper half parallel to the floor of the drinking establishment to avoid the wild swing of a broken bottle. Hiashi's patience wore thin when he had to twist his body aside to avoid the hatchet that had just been launched at him by the barkeep, though.

"Enough of this foolishness!" Hiashi yelled, his body disappearing behind the obscuring winds of a huge Hakke Shou Kaiten. The floor beneath him ruptured, the wood spinning away and leaving the Hyuuga standing on the stone that supported it from beneath. His attackers were sprawled against the walls, pushed back by a wind so strong it had broken the few unblemished bottles remaining. A massive wave of killer intent, almost visible as it bent the air surrounding Hiashi and pushed lighter objects away from him, expanded to encompass the entire building and much of the street outside.

"I told you," Hiashi growled, his voice heard by all around despite his lack of effort to speak above the level of a hushed conversation. "I am searching out information gathered for Jiraiya, the Gama-Sennin. I have been here and gotten such information before when I was his student, and now you will tell me what you know."

The barkeep popped a head up from behind the bar, and squinted at the glowering man that towered over any one of his regular patrons. "Wait... You mean... You were in that 'Team Pervert' thing he always bangs on about?"

Hiashi, to his credit, managed to keep from groaning out loud. "Hai."

"You're the one who... You can't be..."

Hiashi growled, his lip curling. "I cannot be _what_, Jii-san? Tell me _NOW._"

"You're not... Hiashi-k-k-kun are you?" The barkeep said, before grinning ferally.

Hiashi couldn't resist the urge, and the oppressive atmosphere dropped in a second as he brought the palm of his left hand to greet his face with an audible 'smack'. This would be a long night...

* * *

Jiraiya watched from afar as his new student ran through the hand-seals for one technique after another. He was pushing far too much Chakra into the techniques, that was obvious even from where the pervert sat, but the lack of a tenth finger to mould the Chakra through was throwing the boy.

The Sannin threw caution to the wind and rose from his hiding place, wandering over to Naruto with his arms folded and a look of reprimand upon his face.

Within moments, Naruto had stopped what he was doing and watched the Gama-Sennin approach, tapping a foot in mock impatience. Jiraiya reached him, and set a large hand on the boy's crown.

"You're forming too much Chakra to compensate for the lack of a tenth point in your seals."

Naruto looked confused, then bent down and started taking off his left sandal.

Jiraiya cocked an eyebrow in question, only to have the blonde roll his eyes. "You were about to tell me to take off my left shoe so it would balance me more."

Realisation struck. Jiraiya's grin became huge, and he chuckled gleefully. "Ye-es, yes, of course I was! How silly of me to not even know it... That's right, Naruto, you must balance yourself so you can form the seal properly. You have lost something from the right side, and so must now lose something from the left. The sandal will be fine, you don't have to get out a knife or anything!"

Naruto shrugged, and attempted the techniques again. Each one, while a little unsteady at first, did indeed form correctly. The only real problem was when Naruto created a Kage Bunshin and it came out with a foot where a hand should be, but after a few repetitions that flaw was ironed out entirely.

Jiraiya watched as Naruto struggled to launch a Housenka no Jutsu, created clone after clone, and even tried to break the rubber ball with his practice of the Rasengan, along with the half-dozen other techniques taught at the Ninja Academy, and shook his head. Naruto may have the knowledge inside that head of his to outsmart an opponent, were he to actually fight one any time soon, but he still needed a little bit of variety. There was only so far one could go with a handful of techniques before you found an enemy who you were completely unequipped to fight against.

Or before they found you.

* * *

When Rat, Horse and Dragon found the hidden lair, they almost ignored it completely due to the signs of many persons leaving in a hurry. Their curiosities peaked however, when the low echo of a child giggling met their ears.

The three ANBU stalked through the featureless stone tunnels, heads twitching at every single sound, with their Tantos drawn ready. The voice echoed down each hallway, but grew louder and louder as the trio approached the source; a large square room empty of furniture, but littered with dead bodies and soaked in blood.

Symbols were carved into the walls that made Horse ill to stare at for too long, and he heard Rat wretch behind her mask. The stench was unbelievable. The most disturbing sight by far, though, was he one living soul in the entire room.

Uchiha Sasuke.

* * *

Hyuuga Kenoichi grunted as he was kicked in the 'floating' ribs, air leaving his lungs with enough force to wake him and leave him gasping for oxygen.

Hyuuga Hiashi stood over him, kimono raised to reveal the sandals he wore, and a look of abject fury upon his face.

"Stand, Branch! We are leaving this Kami-forsaken hell hole right this instant!" his leader sneered, and Kenoichi did his best to rise even with the lack of air in his body. Something had happened to make his master angry, and for all he pitied the poor fool that had managed it, he still felt a vague sense of amusement at seeing his 'all powerful leader' reduced to a mere man seething in fury. Any sort of display of emotion from the cold bastard was welcomed among the Branch House, especially if it was a source of annoyance for the stoic man.

"Have negotiations broken down, Hyuuga-dono?" Ayumu questioned, reeling back as he found a finger pointed in his face and felt the crackle of barely-controlled Chakra emitting from the tip.

"We have bigger shuriken to throw, now move yourselves out of this town right now!"

The four Branch House members leapt to their leader's words, following him out of the large window he had entered by.

Whatever had happened, it was much more important to Konoha and the Hyuuga than a trade-deal.

* * *

The dark-haired boy was sat amongst the entrails of the dead, moving the soft tissues into patterns in front of him and chuckling to himself. The sigils around the room all came down to this one central point, and the Genin was apparently trying to finish his disgusting artistry with organs.

Horse took a step towards the boy, as silent as he had been, only to have the Uchiha raise his head and stare right at him.

Or perhaps through him would be the better terminology. Uchiha Sasuke had no eyes in his sockets.

* * *

Many miles away, the small clay cup Jiraiya was taking a sip of water from cracked and sprang a leak. He raised his face to the sky, staring up at the moon, and felt a cold wave of dread at the sign.

Things were about to get very, very bad.

* * *

_AN: Hope you enjoyed the cliff-hanger ending, I'm writing Chapter 17 as we speak_. _Now, the bone I had to pick; I received two reviews recently from a delightful person who was decidedly annoyed with the direction I was taking my story in. I read his reviews, and replied to them, and have since heard nothing from him, although I doubt that will be the case after this chapter has been posted._

**Banished Soul of Darkness**_ seems to believe that to convey anger in a review, one must curse and swear and generally be... not constructive, but merely abusive. To be fair, I will post my replies to his... less-than-favourable reviews rather than just his review, as otherwise it wouldn't be very fair to have picked flaws within his argument and then tell all of you he was being a bit... unseemly in his writings, without showing my end of the bargain too._

_First review:_

* * *

**cool with the sasuke thing.**

Which Sasuke thing? Making him insane?

** u now how u said people complained about ur story being different than the canon?? **

Ye-esss?

**well im fucking complaining about how naruto is too much like the flesh bag of a canon naruto, fuck that, lets see if u still like me if i KILLED u fucking THREE times. **

Cursing isn't a pre-requisite of showing you're angry in a Review... I don't think I'd like you very much if you tried to kill me and I had to be pulled back from the brink of death three times by Kyuubi, but seeing as how if you'd done that you would have been my first and BEST friend who I spent much of every day with until that point... I think I'd kinda want you not-dead anyway when it came out you were insane at the time you 'killed' me.

**after u were brought back by field medics, FUCK THAT. **

What field medics?

**fuck canon naruto. **

I concur, lets violate him.

**im not reading canon im reading fanfiction u sonofabitch. **

Congratulations for noticing. You call me names, you get my ire.

**Fuck You. **

I'd prefer not to, thanks. Your IQ seems to be lowering by the second.

**otherwise its a fanfiction worth reading. **

Why thank you, your opinion now counts -SO- much.

* * *

_I dislike being referred to as a 'sonofabitch', and dislike it even more when someone says 'fuck you'. Its not big or clever to resort to cursing at someone in order to get your point across._

_Now, the second:_

* * *

**u do know that the people u did anger with this AN will tell the people of fanfiction on how u posted a chap as an AN which is enough to kick the story off. **

If they do, I'll just have to report the 300 or so other fics that have done it and thusly deserve to be removed to. Ain't vengeance a bitch?

**now for the finger thing, y?? y the hell doesnt he have a finger? we all know the kyuubi could easily heal it even months after, as he could just burn the scar tissue and then regeneration. but y dont u do it? **

Because it is, as the Summary says, MY story and as such anything goes. Why are there MPreg fics out there? Because someone, somewhere, thought 'hey I'll change the laws of biology and physics!' and wrote something.

He doesn't have a finger because, well, Sasuke inadvertently cut it off when Naruto avoided having a kunai rammed through his hand.

Kyuubi could, unless that chakra pathway was (as is said in Chapter 15) damaged, so no matter what energy he sends down the 'pipes' it doesn't reach its destination (Mainly because it is fuelling the Echoes). I won't 'do it' because it would be going back on what I've said in the story, it'll change what I have made canon for MY story, and it removes one of the few things I could do to Naruto to break him out of his mold. Most people go for a change of wardrobe, which I've done SLIGHTLY, some even go so far as to remove entire LIMBS which, according to your logic, he can "burn the scar tissue and regenerat(e)", so why not go and demand those authors follow 'logic' too?

**kyuubi also wouldnt make naruto even look weak because naruto represents him now and it would look like the kyuubi is weak because he couldnt heal a little finger, also think about losing a finger ur self, its fucking more important than u think. **

Kyuubi isn't making Naruto look weak. He's disgusted by the fact his container looks weak, and thus tries his damnedest to heal Naruto, but can't because of the reasons I've given.

As to the 'finger' thing, think on this; what if I HAVE lost a finger? What if every morning I wake up and I have an itch I just can't scratch because the place where it itches was tossed into a medical waste incinerator a long time ago?

Yeah, more important than you think, jerk.

**now with the sasuke thing, him getting away is fine but konoha likes revenge (naruto's treatment) and as UCHIHA itachi killed a bunch of people. the friends of those uchiha would hate sasuke. **

I'm not quite sure what you mean, here, but I'm going to assume it has something to do with 'blaming one for another's actions'. Uchiha ITACHI murdered the entire Uchiha clan bar one, his little brother. There will be people who were mad at Itachi for murdering the clan, BUT those people would surely not blame his poor, innocent brother for that crime, and because they were 'friends of the family' would offer to take him in. Like EVERYONE would.

**also this is a ninja village and u said they r like pacifists. WHAT THE FUCK. they train 12 year olds to kill people what the fuck do u think pacifist r. **

I know what 'Pacifist' means. The Hidden Mist Village held a tournament where each Genin candidate would have to fight to the death against another to earn the rank of Genin; this is not Pacifistic. Konoha seems to try and be as kind as possible to its peoples, which would include not simply killing every criminal and not maiming a CHILD for the sake of 'protection'.

**so yes i believe the council would remove sasukes eyes or at least had planned to before his execution as they would lose a bloodline which is very important to their power. hell more than likely they would take sperm take the eyes and regrow the clan from scratch for how much strategic power they would have with the bloodline.**

Which, based on a made-up estimate in my head, a Eugenics programme would take about three years, give or take, to thoroughly equip and allow for research into any possible downsides, followed by another couple of months to both find willing surrogate mothers and impregnate them, followed by keeping tabs on the pregnancies in case of complications. After this, those that carry to term (always a chance of miscarriage, after all) would have little Uchiha children that the Sharingan only manifests in IN A CERTAIN FEW once placed in a LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION. This means they would have to ALL be trained as Ninja, which costs money and time (about twelve years?). The Advisers would not be so frivolous as to put their 'precious' Uchiha children into peril so quickly, and so would probably make them wait before going on a mission where they could die (anything above a D-rank) for much longer than the other Genin, thus holding back the development of their Ninja and weakening the village as a whole in future years because of a weak crop of soldiers.

Its a very sensible thing to think. What could the repercussions from all of this be? Even taking Sasuke's eyes and implanting them, it wouldn't work for more than the time it took until that Ninja died. Just because you get a lung transplant, it doesn't change your entire DNA so you have the children of the person you received the lung from.

**oh and they know orochimaru want sasuke so guard would have been higher even if it wasnt a prison. **

Higher than ANBU constantly wandering through the area? Why on EARTH would they think "Hey, this is ANBU headquarters, filled to the brim with hundreds of uber-experienced and dirty-fighting Hunter-nin who could tackle Orochimaru given the damage done to his arms by Sandaime, we'll have to increase the Guard just in case anyone is dumb enough to try and break Sasuke out!"? Kabuto has been shown to be a crafty little bastard, he fooled ANBU into thinking he was one of them. You can't fake skill.

**last thing i do not let impreg off the hook. i ignore that it exists would u rather have that happen to ur story?**

I doubt somehow you ignoring my Fic would have great ramifications for the world, if you chose to stop reading. I'd like you to stop reviewing with cursing in, if at all possible?

**'inconsistent storyline' hello!**

Hello :)

**they hate naruto because he holds a demon they despise orochimaru for being a traitor, they hate anko because she is the student of a traitor. they would hate sasuke for being a traitor. please reply**

They fear Naruto because 'liek OMG he's da DEMON!' and 'he kileld all my freinds!'

They despise Orochimaru for his experiments where innocent Ninja died, and his subsequent crimes against Konoha.

They fear Anko because she WAS Orochimaru's student, and who knows what little time-bomb he placed in her? Perhaps the desire to use a Kinjutsu on the Hokage whenever she entered his office? Maybe even an insane lust for killing that could only be satisfied when she heard a trigger-word? Maybe she's funnelling information to him? Who knows.

They would hate Orochimaru for making Sasuke crazy enough to kill his friend, but wouldn't care because the friend was the Demon they were trying to kill in the first place.

Logic prevails.

* * *

_Now, i'm no genius, but I think my argument about the Uchiha Eugenics program is about right... Konoha would effectively lose the clan anyway for about fifteen years while they rebuilt, and even then there's no proof that they'd get what they were after._

_I'd like to ask anyone reviewing in the future to try and... stay away from reviewing like this (i.e. Flaming) because it doesn't help anyone and it just makes it look like you're a bit... Inconsiderate._

_Now, I hope you all had a nice time reading Chapter 16: The Hunt, and I look forward to reading any reviews that may or may not come through over the course of the day._

_Many thanks,_

_Amael-the-Chosen_


	19. Chapter 17: Sticks, Stones and Names

**Sticks and Stones my break my bones, but Names will never hurt me.**

* * *

Horse forced himself to look right into the ragged, empty holes that marred Uchiha Sasuke's gaunt face. The boy was obviously malnourished and unkempt, his hair greasy and matted, and his fingernails were chipped and broken.

"You are... ANBU?" Sasuke asked, cocking his head. Dragon gasped a "how the-" from somewhere behind Horse, but cut himself off from further comment.

"Uchiha Sasuke. You are a Traitor of Konoha, and as such will be summarily executed. Do you wish us to pass on any message before we carry out sentence?" Rat said, stepping up to the plate when Horse hesitated for a brief moment.

Sasuke's head cocked for a moment, obviously thinking, before fixing Rat with his disturbingly empty gaze. "I think I do."

At that, the dark-haired boy simply turned back to his art, squishing the lengths of intestine and masses of kidneys and livers about the floor. "There." He said, standing up and moving back, somehow avoiding the bodies that lay scattered about. Dragon took a few steps forward, looking at the obscure 'picture'. "What does it say?" the ANBU asked, raising his view to the insane child.

"It says _Shkffftakh"_

Dragon's head exploded.

* * *

Horse and Rat watched in horror as their team-mate's ANBU mask dropped to the floor, the fragments of skull, brain and eyes that had once made up Dragon's visage raining down upon the floor. Arterial spray from the messily-severed neck doused some of the symbols carved into the floor that had been unmarked, and Dragon's now-limp body fell to the ground, twitching as it struggled to accept it's death.

Rat rounded on the Uchiha, throwing her Tanto at him like a Kunai and grinning behind her mask as it impaled the boy through the shoulder.

Sasuke simply opened his mouth, spat out a pair of molars that the unutterable word had loosened, and licked his lips.

"_Khffsht'Kah_."

Rat's left arm broke in three places, and the muscles in her right hand spasmed so hard her fingers bent back double on themselves and tore the flesh asunder. She screamed, falling to her knees and cradling her ruined extremities in her lap, only to have the Uchiha boy give voice to a sound that had no business coming from human vocal cords. Rat's white porcelain ANBU mask cracked straight down the middle, and fell from her head.

Horse kicked the Uchiha in the stomach, finally having come to his senses. As the boy reeled, he grasped the hilt of the Tanto Rat had thrown and twisted, making the boy grunt in pain, before ripping it out and plunging it into one of the empty eye sockets.

Sasuke's mouth fell open, worked hard at attempting to close, and then gave up as his dead body fell to the floor. Horse kicked the body of the child and walked over to a crying Rat, kneeling and wrapping his arms about her shoulders, careful of her injured arms.

"What the hell was that?" The woman got out past her crying, the tears running down her face in idiot-patterns that followed the creases of scar tissue that marred her cheeks. Horse lifted a hand to his mask and took it off, placing it on the chest of a dead man beside him.

"Names of seals. The names of the seals we use to drain Chakra from people. They're meant to be a myth, but..."

Rat's eyes widened. "But the kid knew them?"

"Learnt... them..." came a rough voice, the tone amused. Rat shrieked, and Horse leapt to the body of the 'dead' Uchiha.

Horse ripped the Tanto from Sasuke's head in a welter of blood and brought the blade down hard on the soft flesh of his neck.

Again and again and again, until the blade snapped and not even the smallest piece of sinew held eyeless head to emaciated body.

* * *

"Hatake Kakashi."

The masked Jounin raised his only visible eyebrow and turned his head to face the window where a Hyuuga Branch House messenger was crouched.

"Yes?" The Ex-ANBU set aside the knife he was using to prepare the vegetables, and turned to his kitchen sink to wash the seeds and liquids of the peppers he had been slicing from his hands.

Kenoichi's eye twitched in disdain, and he found it harder and harder by the moment not to roll his eyes at the Jounin's appearance.

Kakashi was wearing a yellow-frilled pinafore over his standard Konoha Ninja uniform.

* * *

Hyuuga Hiashi did not rise from his calligraphy desk, set on the floor in front of him, when the rice-paper door to his 'office' slid open and the Cyclopean son of the 'White Fang' wandered almost nonchalantly into his midst.

Kakashi stood in front of Hiashi, looking down at the kneeling man, hands in his pockets. "You rang, Hyuuga-san?"

Hiashi's cheek twitched, and he raised a hand and gestured to the floor in front of him. "Please, Hatake-san, be seated."

"I'll stand, thanks."

"As you wish, Hatake-san. I have important information to be shared with you on behalf of Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin, if you would listen?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Whatever."

Hiashi's brow twitched, and he sighed before speaking again through gritted teeth. "Your Uchiha is dead, and the Container is in grave danger."

Kakashi shrugged once more, only removing his right hand from his pocket to scratch his left bicep absent-mindedly. "So?"

Hiashi lifted his gaze from the calligraphy desk and fixed his gaze on Kakashi's eye without moving his head. "You _did _understand me, did you not?"

Kakashi "mm'hmm"d his assent, replacing his hand in his pocket.

"Uchiha Sasuke is deceased, at the hands of three ANBU designated Dragon, Horse, and Rat. Dragon lost his life in the attack, and Rat is severely injured. Tell me, if you can, why the Uchiha boy would have known the names of the seals used in suppressing Chakra?"

"I don't know... Books?"

"Their TRUE names, Hatake-san."

Kakashi's eye widened and his mouth fell open behind his mask. "Say again?"

"Their _true_ names, Hatake-san. Did I stut- Was I not clear in my wording?"

Kakashi sat down heavily upon the floor of the makeshift office, crossing his legs and leaning forward with his elbows rested on his knees, hands hanging in front of him. "You were clear, Hyuuga, I just didn't quite realise the importance of what you're saying. I don't know. I thought that was a myth... I'm fairly sure he didn't know about them either. How did he know them?"

Hiashi frowned. "Rat says the boy admitted to learning them before his death. This is besides the point, as he could teach no-one the Names once he had learnt them anyway. I wish to talk to you instead of the Container."

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"Call it what you wish, Hatake-san," Hiashi sneered, his lip curling in a snarl, "but the fact remains that it _is _a Container. Your teacher was very skilled in the art of Fuinjutsu to make so impressive a vassal to hold the Demon back, even if he was an arrogant fool far above his station."

"If _Naruto_ is in danger, tell me now, Hyuuga-d-dono," Kakashi mumbled in his dulcet tones, stumbling over the 'dono' just enough to cause Hiashi to feel a brief surge of annoyance.

"The Container will be sought out by an organisation known as Akatsuki, so known because of the red clouds that decorate their robes. I have been informed that Uchiha Itachi is amongst their members. Their goal is to find and capture the Jinchuuriki of this world and take the power for themselves. The Container is... vulnerable."

Kakashi stood, shrugging once more as he returned his hands to his pockets and wandered to the shogi screen. "Not when he's with Jiraiya-sama, Hyuuga-dono. You should know that yourself."

Kakashi slid the door open and left, closing the screen after himself.

Hyuuga Hiashi bowed his head and sighed deeply, raising his right hand and rubbing at his temples with forefinger and thumb.

"Even Jiraiya-sama is fallible, Hatake-san. Aoi-chan was testament to that."

* * *

_AN: I'm terribly sorry it's short, but I figured it was best to keep the cliff-hanger than rush straight into something that stood a chance at lowering the tone of this Chapter from 'fast and hard action' to 'strong beginning, weak ending'._

_Hope you all enjoy it, and sorry for sending out two Chapter alerts to those of you who have added me on your Story/Author alerts lists. I'll write Chapter 18 very soon!_

_Ja mata ne!_


	20. Chapter 18: Nostalgia

_AN: I'm really not sure what _**GiveMeABreak **_is trying to say other than I'm immature for posting my replies to _**BanishedSoulofDarkness**_ in the last chapter; I admit, I was probably a little petulant for doing so but I hardly think that makes me 'mature' enough to warrant the critique I received, especially seeing as my main point was that you don't need to be outright abusive in reviewing work you find contrary to your personal tastes. I posted the conversations to show both me AND _**BSoD **_were guilty of getting ahead of ourselves and I wasn't just 'picking on the reviewer I didn't agree with'. I hope that _**GMAB **_doesn't mind me saying this _here _but unfortunately, as he/she left an Anonymous review I can't simply reply privately and have done with the matter..._

_There is a part here written thanks to input from _**anonymous naruhinafan **_that I actually really liked, and there is a proper Omake written in response to a Challenge I read that _**EDelta88**_ wants written. I won't write the entire story he's after, it doesn't resonate with me enough for me to believe I could do a good job of it and I wouldn't like to accept his Challenge without being committed to the idea, but I have written the Omake as a... a preview, I think, of where 'Next' might have intersected had I written it as an AU within an AU._

_Anyway, on with Chapter 18: Nostalgia_

* * *

**Nostalgia**

* * *

"_Will you two behave yourselves, please?"_

_Namikaze Minato ducked underneath a Jyuuken strike that had been aimed at his left shoulder and scampered back quickly with his hands raised in surrender, a nervous grin on his face. Hyuuga Hiashi simply grunted as he folded his arms and wandered back across the clearing of Training Ground Twenty-Four and leant up against his favoured log to procrastinate._

_The blonde boy stuck out a pet lip and dropped to the floor, crossing his legs and folding his arms petulantly in an echo of his less emotional, or at least less expressive, team-mate._

_Nobuyuki Aoi hadn't moved an inch, the perfect image of a carefree girl taking some time to read a book whilst enjoying the warmth of the summer. Apart from her eyes which, while seemingly bored, held a twinkle that spoke of great and dire consequences should her softly voiced request have been ignored. Once her two friends had ceased their shenanigans and parted, her eyes simply flitted back to the point in the medical journal she had been at before being interrupted and resumed their steady back-and-forth motions as she absorbed the information._

_The word of Aoi was like that of Kami himself._

_Namikaze Minato held the title in Konoha of Prankster, and a damned fine one at that, but even he was the first to admit his works were loud, brash, and generally instantly attributable to his personal style. Nobuyuki Aoi was a nobody._

_Until you pissed her off. The silver-haired girl held within her a malicious streak a mile long which was coupled with the patience of a Saint. She could wait for weeks after an infraction before springing her traps, and they were always, without fail, the most embarrassing punishments ever to occur._

_Hiashi had gone an entire week with having to borrow his brother Hizashi's Kimonos before he had eventually stumbled over an apology for calling the girl a 'weak-willed child destined to fail'. In return the girl had simply accepted the apology and, over two days later, Hiashi's Kimonos re-appeared in his room as pristine as they had been before they had been stolen. The ones that had been present during the originals' absence, all bearing the kanji embroidered so time-consumingly for "Stuck up prick", had disappeared._

_The dynamic between the three Genin changed for the better, however, when in a burst of smoke their teacher arrived._

_Jiraiya stood before the members of Team Pervert in one of his favourite Kabuki poses, one hand splayed in front of him and a leg raised from the floor. "YOSH!! Ohayo gozaimasu, minna!"._

_He watched, smiling inside, as Hiashi rolled his eyes and Minato over-exaggerated a face-palm at their sensei's antics. Aoi got to her feet and tucked the medical journal Tsunade had given Jiraiya to hand over to the young girl under her arm and bowed a little, the only to reply vocally with a shy "Ohayo, Jiraiya-sensei."_

"_Glad to see you're all in a good mood! Now, who's up for a D-rank?"_

_Jiraiya's smile grew almost impossibly wide as, with that single question, his charges all groaned and hung their heads in despair._

* * *

Haruno Sakura was, she liked to believe, nothing if not logical.

Sasuke, HER Sasuke, had escaped from the prison below the earth somehow; true, he had deserved to be locked up there and, were she brutally honest with herself, he also deserved the punishment that was to be dealt to him; Death.

That didn't change facts. The boy was alive, somewhere, even though she knew for a fact there would be an entry in the Bingo Book for him. She just knew it.

Once she and Naruto, annoying though he was, had found the boy, chances were he would need medical attention from the beating Naruto would give him. Even if he was to be executed.

So it was that she gripped the Kunai tightly, gritted her teeth, and sliced.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto awoke in his futon to the bass rumbling of Jiraiya's snores. The young Genin sat up, yawned and stretched, then rolled out of the floor-based bed and tidied it away. He wandered to where his clothes lay, folded, and slid one of the scrolls from his bandoleer before sliding it open.

Jiraiya was still asleep, even with the rather loud "cwumph" that heralded the unsealing of something; a Kunai. For safety, and to enhance the validity of their cover story, Naruto had sealed the rest of his ninja equipment within the scrolls. Jiraiya had seen no way of explaining the scrolls if they were found, and so had decided to hide them in plain sight by buying Naruto a couple of Calligraphy sets and coming up with a story that only a writer could.

Jiraiya was a Kabuki dancer of great renown, and Naruto was his newest underling. The boy would follow his master everywhere, and when appropriate would make a record of the latest deeds and "wonderful acts" thereof, whilst similarly taking care of such things as the money the pair used, organising where to stay, doing the laundry, making meals when necessary, etcetera, whilst Jiraiya indulged his more... adult cravings.

The sharpened edges of the Kunai glinted in the morning sun that streamed through the huge windows that made up the eastern wall of the hotel suite, the bare floor looking as though coated in gold. Naruto knelt before the windows, made sure finally that all of his equipment was tidy and easily removed from the room, raised the Kunai and committed his final act; Seppuku.

Naruto watched as the Echo plunged the Kunai into its stomach and tore open its abdomen. Blood veritably gushed from the mortal wound, soaking the future-self's white shorts, the carpet about it, and spraying up the windows to cast small parts of the gold-lit floor a bright crimson. He raised an eyebrow as his Echo slumped to the floor, dead, and faded into nothing. It was vaguely amusing, Naruto thought, to watch oneself die so many times during a day, but this was the first time an Echo had been purposefully watched while it killed itself. The feeling was... disturbing.

Not in a bad way, per se, it simply... opened up a new avenue. Naruto, an Echo of himself he sent forth anyway, dropped the Kunai from its hand and ran, full pelt, to the blood-free windows. The Echo jumped a moment before impact, slamming into the glass and then through it. The window shattered with a loud noise, and an Echo of Jiraiya tore itself from the sleeping man's form and ran to the window to stare down in shock at the hideously broken body of his student.

The Echo lay crumpled upon the ground some four storeys below, having landed on its neck. Everything that had once occupied the space immediately above said extremity was burst like a grape.

Naruto, still up in the hotel room, pressed a hand against the cool glass of the unblemished windows. So much, he could see, yet he was still blind at times. Had he known, or had a... a super-Echo, he might have been able to stop Sasuke where he stood and saved the boy's life. Such a thing, however, was not to be.

The blonde held out hope; Sasuke was alive. He knew it. He could feel it within his bones, within the blood itself that flooded his arteries and veins. He knew it because he had seen the twin-tomoe Sharingan, and that meant he had to meet the owner of those eyes once again in his life.

With precisely two minutes to go before Jiraiya awoke and demanded breakfast, Naruto headed downstairs to collect a tray laden with a meal for two. He couldn't stand the childish behaviour of the man, even if he _was_ the most childish of the two.

_Nobody_, Naruto thought haughtily as he exited the room, _likes a Wannabe._

* * *

"_Aw come ON, Hiashi?!"_

"_Iie."_

"_Just once?"_

"_Iie."_

"_Please?"_

"_... Iie."_

_Hyuuga Hizashi huffed, reaching out and flicking his older-by-minutes twin in the unblemished forehead. Hiashi's eyes opened wide and a slim eyebrow cocked in question, his arms remaining folded against the verbal assault issuing forth from his relative._

"_Can I please just come with you to your team training to meet Jiraiya-sama? I just want to get away from that Gai-kid for one day... even Takuma-sama can barely stand his little 'If I can't' promises sometimes..."_

"_Hizashi..."_

"_I'll be quiet, I swear?"_

_Hiashi sighed heavily, unfolding his arms and holding them, palms up, at his side. He looked directly up to the heavens, and spoke the immortalised words every culture about the world has uttered in one form or another; "K-Kami-sama, why me?"_

_Hizashi hugged his brother tightly, much to the boy's chagrin, and ran off to presumably find his sensei and explain away tomorrow's absence. Hiashi smirked and lowered his head to hide the expression; even after an entire day of pathetic D-ranks and being annoyed by that moronic blonde who wouldn't amount to anything, his brother Hizashi could still make him chuckle. It was like..._

_A mellower version of Minato. Tempered by the Cursed Seal that was displayed for all to see on his forehead in a classic Hizashi-borne need to be as unconventional as possible, his brother was just as energetic and full of life as his hopeless team-mate._

_Hiashi shook the thoughts away and set off towards the Hyuuga Estate to practice in the sand-pits. Tomorrow would be... a wake-up call to his brother's misplaced hero-worship._

_He hoped. Kami only knew _what _would happen were his twin to be _inspired _by the white-haired pervert..._

* * *

Jiraiya pushed himself up from his prone position, covering his eyes with a large hand to ward off the too-bright sunlight that burnt his eyes and hangover-muddied brain. He was about to loudly demand breakfast when a soft click that reverberated around the inside of his skull made him wince, then open his eyes a crack in question.

Before him sat a tray with breakfast for two, and on the opposite side knelt his new pupil. The boy was tucking into a slice of toasted bread smothered with plum jam, and smirked cheekily at his sensei through a mouthful.

Jiraiya smirked back and muttered a half-assed 'thanks', grabbing what meats there were on the tray and wolfing them down in an attempt to relieve the aching of his stomach.

The boy was... useful.

* * *

"_OI, Hiashi-ch-ch-chan!"_

_Hyuuga Hizashi looked up and cocked an eyebrow at the fast-approaching blonde child, taking in the boy's form and rather... excited expression. He dismissed the teasing greeting, mainly because he himself had used similar forms of address with his brother when they verbally sparred as siblings were wont to do, and also because even their father had mistaken one son for another from a distance._

_The blonde slowed his approach and put his hands on his hips, stopping only a couple of feet away from where Hizashi stood. "Hiashi! Think we'll get a B-rank today? Wait... what's that on your head?"_

_Hizashi rolled his eyes, the very image of Hiashi on a 'holier-than-thou' day. "I'm _Hizashi_, not Hiashi. He'll be here shortly. Are you... Namikaze-san?"_

_The blonde recoiled, a look of abject confusion upon his face, and scratched his head comically as he processed the information. With a faint whisper of leaves and wind, the answer was forthcoming;_

"_Hai, he is." came the soft voice, and Hizashi's eyes widened a little. He turned slowly and drank in the sight before him._

_The cute girl with the near-white hair standing behind him, or in front of him now that he had turned, held a thick leather-bound ledger under her right arm, and wore her hitai-ite around her right bicep. She wore a dark-blue vest-like shirt, the neck-line sweeping to just below her collarbones, and a pair of dark green shorts that weren't too voluminous, but not figure-hugging either, along with the standard blue sandals common to most Konoha Shinobi._

_The unknown girl smiled at Hizashi's unconcealed gawking, and reached out with her free hand to flick him in the forehead. Hizashi recoiled slightly, gaining some control over himself as he blushed slightly and closed his mouth._

"_I'm Nobuyuki Aoi, Hyuuga-san."_

_Hizashi smiled, still pink. "H-Hizashi, Hiashi-kun's brother."_

* * *

Hyuuga Hiashi placed the frame that held the photograph of him and the rest of Team Pervert back into the drawer of his bureau. His lip twitched upwards at the memories of way-back-when, but the frown that creased his forehead remained.

Times had been happy then, when they were thirteen. It was a shame it hadn't lasted long at all.

_Damn you, Jiraiya-sama._

* * *

**OMAKE:**

Horse forced himself to look right into the ragged, empty holes that marred Uchiha Sasuke's gaunt face. The boy was obviously malnourished and unkempt, his hair greasy and matted, and his fingernails were chipped and broken.

"You are... ANBU?" Sasuke asked, cocking his head. Dragon gasped a "how the-" from somewhere behind Horse, but cut himself off from further comment.

"Uchiha Sasuke. You are a Traitor of Konoha, and as such will be summarily executed. Do you wish us to pass on any message before we carry out sentence?" Rat said, stepping up to the plate when Horse hesitated for a brief moment.

Sasuke's head cocked for a moment, obviously thinking, before fixing Rat with his disturbingly empty gaze. "I think I do."

At that, the dark-haired boy simply turned back to his art, squishing the lengths of intestine and masses of kidneys and livers about the floor. "There." He said, standing up and moving back, somehow avoiding the bodies that lay scattered about. Dragon took a few steps forward, looking at the obscure 'picture'. "What does it say?" the ANBU asked, raising his view to the insane child.

"It says 'Gotta Catch 'em All,' ANBU-san."

Dragon reeled, confused beyond belief, as the eyeless boy's Chakra flared massively.

Sasuke flashed through hand-seals in the blink of an eye and screamed the name of a technique never heard of before;

"NINPOU: SASUKE-CHU HENGE NO JUTSU!!"

Horse, Rat and Dragon were thrown to the walls of the chamber, impacting hard, by the sudden release of the gathered Chakra. Where once the Uchiha Genin had stood, there now was... something Else.

It came to the height of a knee, was black with blue markings, and wore a miniature blue shirt with the Uchiha fan upon it. The creature had two pointed ears that swivelled much like those of a cat, and a jagged tail that stood proud and erect.

Dragon and Rat recovered quickly, charging the creature in the hopes of destroying it quickly. Their urgency was their downfall, however, as the small black animal grinned a toothy grin, and yellow-tinged lightning began to crackle about its small body.

"SAS-UKE... CHUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!" The beast yelled in a strangled, high-pitched voice. The lightning arced from its body and struck Dragon and Rat hard, sending them into the oblivion of unconsciousness even as it burnt their clothes and skin. Horse ran forwards, ready to avenge his team-mates, only to have the small black creature lower its tail and repeat its previous attack.

Horse's vision swam. He had been thrown back by the assault and, like his comrades, was rendered unconscious. He had taken much less of a blow, however, and awoken much quicker. He turned to the opening he and the rest of Team Hiashi had entered the room through, and gawked at the sight of the still-present Sasuke/thing.

"Sasuke, Sasuke-chu!" the strange creature chirped before turning tail and fleeing the complex.

"Ugh... Horse?" Rat grouched as she hefted herself up upon her arms as wakefulness was restored to her.

"Hai?"

"...Lets just tell everyone we killed him BEFORE that happened, yeah?"

"... Agreed."


	21. Chapter 19: Scenarios

_AN: Due to going down for a few hours, I have been unable to post this chapter as soon as I had finished it, almost seven hours ago... This aggravated me immensely._

* * *

**Scenarios**

* * *

Yakushi Kabuto walked through the dimly lit halls of Orochimaru's most recent hideout clutching a clipboard in his left and flipping the pages held upon it over with his right.

He navigated mainly by instinct, allowing his feet to carry him to his destination whilst his eyes scanned the information upon the sheaves of paper before him relating to his master's newest body, tissue compatibility results, biopsy results and a whole section devoted entirely to vitamin, mineral, blood cell and enzyme counts. Everything he had read was no older than twenty minutes, and right now a new set of results were being reeled off by the printing device back in Kabuto's lab.

It all said that Orochimaru was perfectly healthy. Kabuto grinned.

The grey-haired boy who had masqueraded as an ANBU for weeks to break out Uchiha Sasuke found a heavy stone door barring his travel, but simply shouldered it aside and entered his master's chambers. He flipped the pages on the clipboard back to their original places and tucked the board underneath his left arm, absently pushing his glasses back to the bridge of his nose with the middle finger of his right. Orochimaru was sat upon his bed, bandages wrapped about his entire body to keep the newest form from mutating and sprouting abominable tumours that would leave him dying, or dead, within moments. It was this time, just after having transferred his soul into a new vessel, that Orochimaru needed good news most; his Oto-nin bodyguards' lives depended upon it.

Kabuto brushed aside one of the muslin curtains that shielded the sight of Orochimaru's weak form from his minions, and handed the clipboard over with a slight bow of submission. "Orochimaru-sama, the results from your latest testing. The body is not rejecting your soul as fiercely as previous incarnations did at this point, and is in fact adjusting well. There are no signs of inherent diseases, genetic mutations, and the modifications pre-transfer to the subject's chakra system are holding and strengthening with each day."

Orochimaru's single visible eye flicked back and forth as he speed-read the pages before him, heavily bandaged fingers making an irritating 'scritch'ing as the white wrappings slipped slightly on the papers before gripping properly. In his own time, once he had confirmed Kabuto's diagnosis, his gaze met that of his lieutenant and chief physician.

"What of Konoha no Gakure?" The Sannin's voice rasped, muffled slightly by the cloth across his mouth.

Kabuto bowed again. "Our spies still on-location inform us that Uchiha Sasuke was found and terminated by three ANBU, one of whom lost his life due to the 'Names' we left. Due to the nature of the attacks, and the limited evidence, it is highly likely that our ruse will be discovered quickly. Should anyone search the site we left the Uchiha at after removing his eyes and adding our own seals amongst his own scribblings, they will know that the 'Names' merely activated the traps you had myself and the rest of the Sound Five set before leaving. As is, they are still leading an apparently covert research team into finding the Names, myth though it may be, in the hope of combating it in the future. Their efforts are in vain."

Orochimaru chuckled darkly, malevolence glinting in his eye. "Good. The more we can distract the fools, the better. This ought to leave us enough time to re-approach Suna and bend them to our will again. Without their Kazekage to lead them, having been tragically killed by the Hokage with a Kinjutsu technique known to be exceedingly cruel and evil, they shall have to rely upon their Council. Such people are easily influenced with promises of power and riches, and so this is what we shall offer them. I shall heal and return to them, but for now... inform our spies in Suna to start spreading the rumour their Kazekage is held within the deepest vaults of Konoha's prisons, and have their counterparts in Konoha instruct the future emissaries to Wind Country that the rumours are baseless."

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama. Immediately."

Kabuto turned to leave, and had already lifted the curtain to exit his master's personal space when the low voice spoke once more. "Kabuto-kun?"

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama?"

"How fare the samples?"

Kabuto turned half-way to look over his shoulder at his master, and smirked. "The Sharingan eyes fare well, Orochimaru-sama. They will be ready for implantation in the subjects whenever you wish."

Kabuto left, dropping the curtain and walking to the door once more. The sound of Orochimaru's hideous, near-maniacal laughter, followed him all the way back to his laboratory.

* * *

"Again."

Hyuuga Hinata's shoulders, already slumped with fatigue, dropped further. She was tired, beaten and hungry even without the feelings of despair brought on by the heavy rain that fell upon the training ground occupied by her, her father, and her younger sister Hanabi.

The youngest of the two heiresses simply smirked and assumed the ready stance of the Jyuuken, while Hinata struggled to even raise her arms high enough to form the defensive posture. Hiashi, having seen this, simply shook his head and sighed almost imperceptibly. Almost, but not quite.

Hinata heard her father's disappointment once more, and saw her sister's smirking face before her yet again. She would lose. Once again, she would lose, simply because she did not want to hurt her sister.

Hanabi, however, took the sigh as the signal to begin. The young girl launched herself forward with the speed of a cobra, straightened fingers lancing out at Tenketsu that were already strained from being hit, even if the Chakra that should have accompanied such blows was absent.

Hinata's defence faltered and crashed about her as her sibling prodded her into submission, the too-hard hits for a training match knocking her down and allowing the younger girl to take stock of the battle before resuming her assault.

Hinata pushed herself up weakly, her arms quivering. She would _not_ give up. That wasn't something Naruto would do, and it certainly wasn't something any Hyuuga would do either. Her resolve, however, nearly failed her when her sister's voice broke through the oppressive drum-roll of the rain.

"Hinata-san... You truly are weak. Concede the match."

A cold delivery from an equally cold girl. Hinata's head was hung, tears that fell from her eyes hidden in the rain. "Iie."

"Concede, you fool. I could have killed you three times by now, but still you cling to this pathetic ideal from an equally pathetic boy who doesn't even deserve the name of Shinobi."

"Iie."

"... Pathetic. To think that we are related by blood is almost an affront, _sister_. You stand, so you must wish to continue your fight still, correct?"

The younger girl walked slowly to her sibling, raised a hand in an echo of a classic Jyuuken death-blow, and thrust her hand forward.

Hinata's face whipped around as her sister slapped her hard, bloody spittle flying from her mouth as the blow made her clamp her teeth down upon her tongue. Hanabi raised her hand again, ready to strike a second time, but hesitated for a moment.

"If you think that stupid boy you adore will even notice you, you are a bigger fool than any of us thought, sister. You are only a weak Kunoichi with no fight in you, and he is an abject moron with about as much nobility in his blood as a stone wall. You both go together so _perfectly_ it is almost beyond comprehension. The Fool..."

At this, Hanabi's hand began to glow with chakra. "And the Fool who follows him."

Hanabi's hand shot forward with all the speed chakra could give her, and struck her target.

Except now her target was a rather large and frightening Hakke Shou Kaiten that had appeared out of nowhere.

* * *

Haruno Sakura wandered through the rain, her feet remembering the streets about her without conscious input as to her destination. She held her arms out at her sides, palms raised to the sky in a mirror of her face, also upturned, and she almost danced from puddle to puddle with a warm smile upon her lips.

She was happy. Uchiha Sasuke had not yet been reported dead, at least not in the papers made available to ninja. This, of course, didn't mean much, but given her team-mate's rather... famous past, it did bode well for her that nobody had heard of an end to his life.

Her shoulder-length pink hair, hewn roughly by a Kunai mere days before, was plastered to her head and face. Sakura, however, didn't care. She danced, skipped and ran through the wet streets of Konoha, ignoring cover that passed on either side of the roads for one simple reason beyond trying to inflict a cold upon herself to test her latest healing ability;

Uchiha Sasuke was alive!

* * *

Dog, Monkey and Horse found the room hewn from stone that contained the now-decomposing bodies of Dragon, Uchiha Sasuke and countless victims. The markings all about the walls were, upon closer inspection, nothing like the seals used within the ANBU containment cells that sapped Chakra from their prisoners, more like idiot scrawlings than purposeful lines and carefully-drawn equations of power.

Monkey snorted behind his porcelain mask as Dog retched, the stench overpowering the ANBU's resolve for a moment. "Kami, Dog, get a fucking grip..."

Dog replied whilst still retching with a hand-signed insinuation as to Monkey's parentage.

Horse ran his gloved fingertips across a seal he recognised, hidden amongst the scrawls and carvings of the walls, and further camouflaged by blood. The ANBU took a half-step back, and then with a yell of fury drove his fist into the stone.

Monkey and Dog, the latter recovered, looked up in question as the leader of their investigation started kicking the headless corpse of Uchiha Sasuke hard, the popping of ribs greeting their ears even as they winced at the desecration of a corpse in front of them.

Dog found his voice first, nasally with the conscious decision to breath through his nostrils as much as possible. "What's wrong, Horse-san?"

Horse ceased his kicking and stomped to the exit, gesturing for his faceless colleagues to burn the entire room's contents. "It's a fake. There aren't any Names in there, just trap-seals and Genjutsu woven into tags about the room to respond to made-up words and phrases. That Uchiha kid was just spouting crap and setting off traps without knowing what they did. The other bodies must be the poor saps he practised on."

* * *

Hyuuga Hanabi was launched backwards through the air within a half a heartbeat. When she landed, her right arm landed under her and gave in to the tremendous forces of gravity by bending the wrong way at the elbow with a sickening crunch, and the tear of cloth.

The young girl sat up and stared in horror at the pearl-white, jagged edge of bone that protruded from her Kimono sleeve, the material rapidly staining a deep, claret red as her life-blood pissed from the wound.

Hanabi looked up just in time to meet the angry gaze of her previously-beaten sibling, the sharp edge of a Kunai held at her throat in an instant.

"Don't," Hinata growled, her voice low with the threat of violence and her chakra forming a killer intent more massive than the younger female had felt before in her life. "EVER, say that about me again, you spoilt little _Bitch_."

Hinata whirled from her sister, the Kunai's tip nicking the soft flesh of Hanabi's neck and drawing a faint trickle of blood even as the pain from her broken arm registered and her screams drowned out the rain.

Hyuuga Hiashi's eyes were wide in horror as his eldest daughter walked before him, bowed low, then threw the Kunai with such force it stuck deep in the stone before his knees.

The Clan head gawked as his daughter left the training ground, then snapped back to the present situation as he realised the source of the anguished screams and panicked cries for help. He jumped to his feet as best he could, crossing the short distance to his severely injured youngest child in moments.

"M-MEDIC!!"

* * *

Tsunade, grand-daughter of the First Hokage of Konoha and renowned 'Legendary Sucker', shook the dice-cup within her hands and let the die roll with a cry of "Han!"

As was only right when things were about to take a turn for the worst, her double-or-nothing bet came up a winner.

"Oi, Tsunade-hime? We need a word..." came the voice she hadn't heard in over two decades, booming now as it once had with just the slightest undertone of a greater maturity. The Slug Sannin slapped her palm to her face and ignored the voice, picking up the dice and shaking the cup once more.

Only the fact that every single face in the room was staring at the owner of the voice in awe stopped her from continuing her gambling. With a huff, she stood with her collected winnings held in her arms and turned, her bright blue eyes meeting the dark, mahogany ones from her past.

"Jiraiya." she greeted, her voice reserved.

"Tsunade-hime." came the reply.

With perfect timing, or imperfect depending on the outlook you perceived of the situation, a gale of wind and leaves behind her made Tsunade spin on her heel and cock back a fist, ready to swing at an attacker. The blonde child wearing a grin that could have put Dan or Nawaki to shame, along with a black t-shirt and horribly bright orange track-pants, simply added his two cents before being smacked in the face by a fist that had shattered bones.

"NARUTO!!"


	22. Chapter 20: Godaime

**Godaime**

* * *

_The blonde child wearing a grin that could have put Dan or Nawaki to shame, along with a black t-shirt and horribly bright orange track-pants, simply added his two cents before being smacked in the face by a fist that had shattered bones._

"_NARUTO!!"_

The child took the blow full-force, teeth being mashed back into his gullet before bursting into smoke.

Tsunade over-balanced as the sudden resistance to her wild swing disappeared, and she fell face-first on top of the dicing surface. Wagers and gambling materials were sent flying, and Tsunade's fellow winners and losers scattered, panicked expressions on their faces.

"Ano... Jiraiya-sensei, that looked like it hurt..."

Tsunade's head whirled around, her eyes drinking in the sight of the blonde kid she had just 'killed' standing next to her white-haired ex-team-mate, a hand on the back of his head.

Jiraiya looked puzzled himself, looking down at the person calling him 'sensei' and raised an eyebrow. "You do know the downside of Kage Bunshin, right?"

The blonde shuddered visibly, gulping nervously as he looked right at Tsunade. "I _really _don't wanna be hit again, Tsunade-sama..."

The slightly-drunk woman pushed herself to her feet and sighed heavily, massaging her temples with her fingertips. "Lets go. Whatever you want to talk about, we can do it over a Saké..."

* * *

Precisely twenty-three days after she heard the news that Uchiha Sasuke had gone missing, Haruno Sakura had gone dancing through the rain in an effort to both catch a cold, and to celebrate the news that the dark-haired boy was not dead.

This was... premature. Today, precisely twenty-four days after she heard the news that Uchiha Sasuke had gone missing, Haruno Sakura read the headlines in the newspaper and passed out where she stood.

Uchiha Sasuke was unequivocally dead, and had been for almost a week.

* * *

"Hanabi."

The youngest of Hyuuga Hiashi's daughters looked up at the sound of her name, seeing her father standing before her. Her right arm had been set and placed in a cast, and she sat lotus-style in the centre of one of the many training pits held within the Hyuuga compound. "Otousama."

Hiashi squared his jaw, his countenance becoming more serious, and stepped towards where Hanabi was sat. He ignored the urge to fiddle with the edge of his Kimono sleeve, instead opting to clench his fists while they were hidden behind the heavy cloth. "Daughter, where did you learn those words? They are, in my opinion, above your age level. Have you heard someone speak those words and copied them?"

"I merely repeated what I have heard on numerous occasions. Why my_ sister _chose to react in such a manner to them, I know not." Came the reply, the young girl spitting the word 'sister' like poison.

"It seems I shall have to discuss this matter further with the other members of the Clan. Hanabi?"

"Hai, Otousama?"

"Don't ever talk to your sister like that again, or I shall be the one to punish you instead of her."

Hyuuga Hanabi, mouth open in shock, watched as her father simply walked away from her, and didn't bother to wait for a 'goodbye'.

* * *

"So, you want me to come back to the village I hate..."

"Hai."

"... and take the job my partner and my little brother died while trying to achieve..."

"Yep."

"... so _you _don't have to?"

Jiraiya and Naruto both looked at one another, sat upon the same long seat in the bar privacy cubicle, before returning their gazes to Tsunade. "Hai." the pair chorused.

"... Bye."

Tsunade stood, shuffling out of the booth and turning to leave, before Naruto piped up again. "If you don't take the job, _Jiraiya_ has to."

Tsunade rolled her eyes and turned back to the short blonde and large white-haired man who were looking at her pleadingly. "You said."

Naruto fidgeted in his seat and scratched the side of his nose, echoing the pose used by his Academy Instructor Umino Iruka when he was trying to be nonchalant about an offer of Ramen. "_Ji-rai-ya_, though?"

Tsunade huffed and put her hands on her hips, leaning forward slightly and narrowing her eyes at the blonde Genin. "Your point?"

Naruto held out his left hand, fingers splayed, and tapped each with the index finger of his right while reeling off 'facts'. "One; Kunoichi uniforms will immediately be changed to mini-skirts and bikini tops. Two; There will be a new branch of ANBU created called the 'Special Reconnaissance Division', dealing specifically with hot springs and bath-houses to gather 'Research' for the next copy of Icha Icha. Three; Standard equipment for all Shinobi will change. Anyone old enough and ranked accordingly will be given a Bingo Book _and_ the latest copy of Icha Icha. Four; Jiraiya's ugly-ass face will be put on the Hokage Mountain, leering down at every single woman from Konoha and any visiting countries, Shinobi or not, for all time. Five; It's _Jiraiya_! The guy who isn't willing to train you some days until you Henge into a naked chick for him."

Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin quaked in his sandals as Tsunade's Wrath was incurred. Sweat ran free from his pores, and his nervous chuckling gave away the fact that at least ONE of those five reasons to not let him be Hokage was true. "I-Iie, Naruto. That's not true at all... I can tell you for a fact that my first decree as Hokage would be to- OH! Hey, look! Akatsuki!"

With that, he leapt over the table and took off at a dead run. Tsunade began pursuit, and the two were lost for the next four hours. Naruto, however, simply interlaced his fingers, leaned back, and put his hands behind his head with a huge grin on his face; his work here was done. If Tsunade didn't agree to be Hokage, the instant any of those decrees passed his lips Jiraiya would be fired and/or executed immediately.

"Oi, Jii-Jii? Can I get a water, please?"

The barman frowned and glared at Naruto. "Don't serve under-age kids, even with water. Your guardians left? Get gone too."

Naruto's face fell. _Aw damn it..._

* * *

Naruto wandered aimlessly through the near-deserted streets of the village, purposefully staying away from the busier areas where night-life flourished. He was _bored _with interacting, faking his normalcy, if only to stay vaguely sane and keep others less... open-minded than his Hokage and teachers decided to 'study' his talents. It was aggravating in a way he found he didn't have words to describe accurately, so just shrugged and meandered through alleys and back-streets in solitude.

The blonde Genin avoided turning down one alleyway where an Echo had just been stabbed with a broken bottle and slumped against the wall a few feet away. Naruto slid down the wall and came to rest on his backside, his legs out before him, before bringing his left hand up to massage the bridge of his nose. He had a headache, and for some god-forsaken reason he had to force his eyes to focus on things sometimes. No matter though, it was probably just a downside of the training Jiraiya had had the boy do on a daily basis. Every single morning, out of the village and into the surrounding forest to practise hand-seals and Jutsu, trying to "balance" his Chakra. The most annoying part had to be performing exercises and techniques with his left sandal off.

Naruto lowered his left hand to his knee, rolling his head back and staring up at the clear, starry sky above him. What was the point in taking off the sandal, anyway? There was that myth that the Yakuza cut off pinkie-fingers so that disgraced members could never stand straight again... that was just superstition, though, right? True, the loss of a finger was a pretty bad but common-ish Ninja injury, Granted, most of those ninja either had their finger grafted back on and went through extreme physiotherapy to get their dexterity back, or they didn't get their finger back and simply started using one-handed seals...

Naruto sighed, then heaved out another as the Echoes of two masked men wandered up to him and demanded his money. He stood, placed his hands in his pockets, and fell back against the wall again to take his weight from his feet.

* * *

The men who approached a minute and a half later didn't see anything wrong with the scene before them; a dumb-ass kid with blonde hair and weird scars on his cheeks was stood against a wall, and looked like he might have a pretty tidy sum of yen on him. They didn't see the Konoha hitai-ite Naruto had, tied about his waist underneath his T-shirt.

"Hey, kid. It's past curfew. You gonna pay us the fine, and get yourself home?" The first said, a smirk on his face as he slowly plucked a knife from a holster he wore on the small of his back.

"Yeah, boy! I reckon whatever you're carrying'd be about right for the fine!" The second complemented, cracking his knuckles and clenching his fists, towering over Naruto.

Naruto raised his left eyebrow, sizing up the two would-be thieves while crossing his arms in front of him. "Really? I'd've thought just having to remember your faces was punishment enough for being out late."

"Give us your cash you little shit, or Daichi here'll gut you." The second growled, his expression souring. 'Daichi' tossed his knife from hand to hand, hunching his shoulders in an attempt to look threatening. Naruto pushed himself off the wall and stood straight, shaking his arms gently to loosen up. "Daichi? You're 'great' alright, lard-ass, but definitely not intelligent. What're you called, baka?"

Daichi really did growl, the sound rumbling from his throat. "Hinata, lets just waste the little brat and have done!"

Naruto's face fell, and he raised a hand up and pointed at Daichi. "You called him," the hand swivelled, indicating 'Hinata' now, "Hinata? Oh Kami, please tell me it isn't true.".

Hinata bellowed in anger, lunging forward and swinging a large fist at Naruto's head. "It's a guy's name too you cock-sucker!"

Naruto's laughter disappeared suddenly along with the rest of him in a storm of leaves that erupted from nowhere, broken only by Hinata's fist slamming through the air. The large man fell forward, smacking his forehead off the wall after a short stumble and knocking himself flat. Daichi had enough time to look to his right and left in search of his would-be victim before a pair of hands, fingers interlaced, smashed into the back of his skull and caused an instant knock-out.

* * *

"Hey, Jiraiya! You'll never guess what this dumb-ass thief was called!" Naruto yelled, opening the hotel door without actually paying any attention, only to look up and find his gaze met by the eyes of two people.

Jiraiya and Tsunade hid their bodies behind the bedsheets, their faces red and their expressions that of people caught doing something rather... personal.

Naruto stared at them, and they stared back. Jiraiya recovered first, clenching his teeth as a vein swelled and began pulsing in his forehead. "Na-ru-toooooo?!"

Naruto's face paled, and his eyes widened in shock. "GOING NOW!!" he practically screamed, executing a perfect one-hundred and eighty degree turn on his heel and exiting the hotel room, slamming the door shut behind him. _From now on_, the trio each promised themselves, _Naruto is getting his own room_!

* * *

_AN: Just a quick response to a few memorable reviews so far; I'm aware I haven't mentioned Shizune just yet, and that Naruto didn't actually see the "ending". Poor guy was distracted, and I figured it'd be funnier if he 'caught them'. Now the question is, given the rather short time Naruto was there and the shock evident on the behalf of all three of them, is it in fact that the Ninin (soundless steps' term) were doing adulterated things, or simply lacking clothes and chatting only to have someone burst in and assume the worst? We'll see. I'll explain Shizune in the next chapter, although she will get a say in the return to Konoha. Just because one half of the Legendary Sucker half might have agreed to return it doesn't mean the second will._

_Now, Thief #2; I checked it three times on three different names websites. Hinata is actually a unisex name. This shocked me, because like 90 of people I'd've thought it was actually just feminine. Oh well._

_Anyhow, that's all for the moment, I'll write again soon I swear, but I'm in work almost every night now and I'm organising my University-like stuff for my full degree. For now, a driving lesson awaits!_


	23. Chapter 21: From a Distance

_AN: After an age of snow, ice and indeed terrible deeds abound, I am Returned to wage war upon your imaginations again!_

_I am really, really, really sorry I haven't been about in the last couple of months to update, but circumstances beyond my control have affected quite a lot of my personal life and took time from everything I had to do._

_The reasons I can name are thus; I passed my driving test third time and got my Pass Plus, my computer broke and had to be sorted out by technicians, my family and I moved home, University started up again and I have been mega-busy with that and organising the house, etc. So, extremely sorry, and over the next few weeks I shall be bringing you more Next fun._

_Without further ado, I shall begin;_

**Chapter 21: From a Distance**

**

* * *

**"_Hey, Jiraiya! You'll never guess what this dumb-ass thief was called!" Naruto yelled, opening the hotel door without actually paying any attention, only to look up and find his gaze met by the eyes of two people._

_Jiraiya and Tsunade hid their bodies behind the bedsheets, their faces red and their expressions that of people caught doing something rather... personal._

_Naruto stared at them, and they stared back. Jiraiya recovered first, clenching his teeth as a vein swelled and began pulsing in his forehead. "Na-ru-toooooo?!"_

_Naruto's face paled, and his eyes widened in shock. "GOING NOW!!" he practically screamed, executing a perfect one-hundred and eighty degree turn on his heel and exiting the hotel room, slamming the door shut behind him. From now on, the trio each promised themselves, Naruto is getting his own room!_

_

* * *

_Jiraiya sat upright on the futon and growled after his student, throwing the covers aside to stand. He was still in some of his clothes, as was Tsunade, but the heavier items they owned were thrown haphazardly about the room.

Tsunade's hand shot out and grabbed Jiraiya's shoulder. "Iie, leave him... Besides, we weren't doing anything... um..." The Legendary Sucker's cheeks flushed for a moment, and then she settled down and closed her eyes. "'Night, Jiraiya."

Jiraiya growled once more and laid back down, shrugging the light sheet covering the Ninin back over himself. "Brat."

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto crossed to the window in the corridor leading to the rooms and slid it open on silent runners, hopping out and attaching himself to the outer wall of the hotel with chakra before slipping the window closed again.

He sighed, tilted his head to one side and sighed in pleasure as his neck cracked, the tension he had felt rushing from him in the slightly sickening wet crunch. The boy put his hands in the pockets of his orange pants and strolled leisurely up the side of the building until he reached the roof, pulling himself up and over the lip of the building before lying down and staring up at the cloudless sky above, the moon a single sliver as sharp as a sickle-blade. As he laid looking up at it, Naruto's eyes fluttered closed and he fell to sleep.

* * *

Hyuuga Neji had, over the past few weeks, heard much of Hinata's apparent triumph over Hanabi, and the young girl's stay in the hospital had indeed confirmed the rumours. Such a thing, to the cold and logical mind of the Hyuuga prodigy, was an affront to the tenets he lived his life by.

That was why he had requested to spar with his younger cousin.

That was why he was currently having his ass handed to him on a silver platter.

Neji watched as, in the slow-motion hyper-detail manner that many people only found themselves witnessing events in before imminent death, Hyuuga Hinata slammed a hand surrounded by glowing blue chakra into the back of his left elbow, bending it fully back on itself and numbing the entire limb with a mixture of chakra and pain. He had time enough to regret challenging the shy girl who had become a demoness on the battlefield before a kick, so uncouth and frowned upon by many combatants in the Hyuuga clan, caught him in the crotch and sent him into oblivion.

Hyuuga Hinata stood imperiously over her fallen cousin's form, looking down her nose at the unconscious and whimpering body crumpled at her feet, before turning her face upwards and nodding in acknowledgement to the Hunter's Moon far above. Maybe, somewhere, her mother was proud of the woman she was becoming.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto awoke early, the sun shining down warmly upon him as he lay on the roof of the hotel his less-than-expected sensei Jiraiya and the future Hokage Tsunade occupied. He saw the muted red glow of the sun through his eyelids, and raised a hand directly in front of his face to block out the rays, only to be foiled by the sliver of light that passed between the middle and pinkie fingers of his right hand. Damn Sasuke.

The blonde Genin grunted and clambered to his feet, re-arranging his black t-shirt about himself as he did so. He'd been turning in the night, it appeared, and the cloth about his torso had worked itself into strange shapes without the pull of gravity to keep it hanging properly. He stood on his tip-toes and stretched, a strangulated groan of pleasure forcing itself past his gritted teeth as his muscles tightened incredibly before relaxing.

"Ohayo gozaimasu..." Naruto mumbled to the quiet town, wandering to the edge of the roof and stepping over, gluing his feet to the wall he had ascended the night before with chakra once again. The boy wandered slowly, taking advantage of the window left open by a conscientious cleaner who had thought it too warm and hopping inside the corridor. Maybe Tsunade would have gotten up and left by now, meaning Naruto could go and change his clothes?

Sadly, this was not to be.

* * *

"Ohayo, brat." Tsunade's cheery tones, laden with malice, cut through the air like whispers on the wind. Naruto froze, tensed for a moment, and then relaxed with a slump of his shoulders and a quick turn of his head.

"Ohayo Tsunade-san. I think I know what you're about to suggest. I'll meet you by the ornamental gardens in about twenty minutes. To make it fair, we'll both only use one finger, hm?"

With that, Naruto shot a cheeky wink at the older woman and faded from existence in a gentle, almost dance-like, flutter of petals and leaves from the flowers that decorated the corners of the corridor. Tsunade, suddenly alone and slightly befuddled, simply blinked off her surprise and smirked.

This one was in the bag.

* * *

"Ano, Naruto, I like having a student again..." Jiraiya mumbled, eyeing Tsunade's figure from a dozen metres away. Naruto was stood next to him, a wry grin on his face as he looked up at the taller Ninja and chuckled.

"You like having a dogsbody, you mean?"

Jiraiya's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in anger, and just as he raised a fist to cuff his second most troubling blonde student, the boy had wandered off to face that which Jiraiya would even have second thoughts before fighting.

"Oi! Obaa-chan! Lets do this!"

* * *

Jiraiya winced as the ground split asunder, Naruto disappearing in an explosion of grass and soil as Tsunade's anger won out over her self-control. She had lashed out at the comment the cheeky blonde had thrown at her, and only Jiraiya's fast reactions had had him jumping into the air before Tsunade's fist touched the earth.

Naruto smiled as the ground exploded beneath him and allowed his body to fall into the closest hole. He watched Echoes run forth, braving the harsh environment, only to fall to the ground unconscious as Tsunade's wrath was enacted upon them in rapid succession.

Naruto kicked off his left shoe to help his chakra flow better; he didn't know why it worked but it definitely made a difference. Tsunade was a medic-nin, and to let her even brush him was to court disaster, but he had a couple of tricks up his sleeves. Or rather, tied to his shins beneath the cover of his pants.

"GET OUT HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT!!!" Tsunade yelled, grinning malevolently as Naruto did exactly that. What she didn't expect was for him to leap from the ground she had just destroyed, but it mattered little. She had him now.

Tsunade raised her fist, ready to smash the ground once more, only to have to roll aside to her left as Naruto turned his upwards leap into a spinning kick, a Kunai lancing out from a concealed holster strapped to the calf of his out-thrown leg. Tsunade turned as soon as her feet kissed the dirt, chakra giving the single toe that was in contact with the ground the grip of an entire foot. Her left hand lanced out, grabbing the thin rope that attached the Kunai to Naruto and yanking it hard.

Tsunade dropped to the deck as a second Kunai lanced out from Naruto's trousers, linked to her by the rope she held. _The crafty little shit knew I'd grab it!_ She had time to curse mentally before ducking the oncoming blade. Keeping a grip of the rope, she turned the weapon used against her into one of her own, swinging the twinned Kunai about like a flail. Naruto's feet touched the ground, and his legs bent as he coiled his muscles for a quick getaway. Tsunade used that as a cue, throwing out her hand and the improvised weapon at once. Naruto pounced away, not to the left, right or even above, but straight into the rope. Tsunade roared in triumph as she raced forward, fist cocked back with a finger outstretched, ready to prod Naruto with the full force of her strength and knock him out.

Then Naruto's fingers closed about the rope and gave it a quick push-tug.

Tsunade dropped hard as Naruto changed the direction of the be-roped Kunais from past him to back in front of him, the blades scything shut like the blades of scissors where Tsunade's head had been an instant before. Naruto, though, had misjudged the manoeuvre as the Kunai, acting like counterweights, swung around and snared him in the unforgiving embrace of the rope.

Naruto dropped on his back, struggling against the rope, and Tsunade stood over him with her hands on her hips.

"Nothing beats experience, brat."

Naruto smiled, his body relaxing as he apparently gave in to defeat. "Except a devious mind and a good knowledge of how to play dirty, you old hag."

Naruto's face exploded into a hail of bone fragments and a film of blood as Tsunade's fist ploughed through it and into the ground beneath. Jiraiya yelled in despair, and Tsunade's eyes widened as a small spray of the sanguine liquid splashed onto her cheek. She stared in horror at the crimson liquid and small chunks of meat slipping down her arm and, after a moment, recoiled in horror and vomited in disgust.

Naruto's body twitched a couple of times against the rope that bound it as half-formed impulses flickered through his nervous system and misfired synapses and muscles.

* * *

Tsunade laid on the ground next to the remains of her breakfast, her eyes hollow and her spirit broken, only to have her unblinking gaze met by toes clad in open-fronted Nin-sandals.

She looked up, the person stood next to her not registering until she saw the blue eyes filled with... was that pity?

"Ne, Baa-chan... I win." Naruto said as he leaned down and flicked the Sannin on the forehead.

With that simple gesture, all the bodily remains of the Shadow Clone dispersed, leaving Tsunade looking worse for wear but unsullied by blood, and the small chunks all over the park that had once made up Naruto's doppelgänger head popped out of existence with faint wisps of quickly-dispersed smoke.

"Ne, Jiraiya-sama, do you think-" was as far as Naruto got before his eyes went dead and he dropped to the ground, out-cold, with blood streaming from his eyes, nostrils, and ears.


	24. Chapter 22: Threads

AN: _Hey everyone. I'm superbly sorry for my stupendously long absence from the world of fanfiction, but the reasons are many._

_Least of which, but perhaps the most pertinent, is the destruction of my original laptop, and then my hard-drive. Basically, my laptop was on its way out even when I first started writing, and it went kaput in a rather spectacular way shortly after I'd started on Chapter 22 version 1._

_Then, a little over a week later, my hard-drive was found crushed. In my own house. Someone, be it family member, visitor, whomsoever, had accidentally stood upon my hard-drive. Data recovery technicians have looked at it, and the forecast was grim. The bill, even more so. Then they told me the drive was beyond their help and told me to get a new one._

_Ah well. Basically, long story short, I'm back, and I've had to read my entire story AGAIN to get the gist of where I was headed. I haven't learnt from my mistakes, or my failings, I'm still the moron who sits in front of the keyboard and bashes out 10,000 words without thinking about where I want the story to advance to. Keeps things fun, I think._

_Right, well, here we go, Chapter 22. Threads._

* * *

**Chapter 22: Threads**

_

* * *

_

Uzumaki Naruto awoke with a scream that chilled the blood. He slapped his hands about his head, feeling for the sticky residue of his vitae that should, if memory served, be dribbling from his every orifice for little reason.

His eyes, open wide and wild, started to take in the sights about him and register within his mind. The bright sunshine, the clear sky, the warmth upon his skin, the locations, landmarks, trees, buildings... He was still on the roof of the hotel. Whole, healthy, sound of body and... he'd leave the last part of that declaration for later.

The young blonde ninja jumped up, and re-arranged his black t-shirt about himself once he had landed lightly on his feet. The abrupt end to his slumber was apparent in the twists of cloth, the neck of the garment wound tight about his throat and extremely uncomfortable. He allowed gravity to tame the t-shirt's errant form, his only concession to tug the collar away from his throat and free his breathing somewhat. He groaned and rubbed a hand over the muscle that had knotted in the back of his neck, cocking his head and half hearing, half feeling the sickening crunch as he cracked his neck as one would a knuckle.

Naruto wandered to the edge of the roof sullenly and stepped over the edge, gluing his feet to the wall he had ascended the night before with chakra once again. The boy wandered slowly downwards towards the window that fate, not a cleaner, had left open for him, and swung himself inside.

* * *

Those few extra seconds had changed the future horribly. Still pre-occupied with his nightmare, Naruto launched himself through the window and directly into the flank of the Legendary Sucker. Tsunade shifted imperceptibly to her left as Naruto crashed into the right side of her body, and in return the boy smashed into the floor.

"Ah. I was just looking for you, brat. You should know better than to go barging into the rooms of your elders! I might just have to discipline you in a spar later-" Tsunade began, only to have Naruto leap to his feet and slap a hand across her mouth.

"Don't. I'm not in the mood for it, Tsunade-san. It would go badly for both of us." Naruto lowered his hand from Tsunade's face, but glowered at her still. "How's about I promise not to talk of what I think I saw ever again, and you be satisfied with that?"

Without waiting for an answer, Naruto turned on his heel and slouched off down the corridor to his room, sliding the door open and slapping it closed whilst he got changed.

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata was up, despite the early hour, and already destroying tree-stumps in the training grounds for use by the Main House of her divided family.

Neji, she had learned, was alive still, although if he ever regained the full range of motion with his left arm remained to be seen. Likewise, if his right testicle didn't descend again soon, he was in danger of losing a part of his body any man would prefer to keep, damaged or not.

The girl felt a cold fury at the possible repercussions of her loss of temper. This new angry Hinata was... amazing. The old Hinata still residing within the depths of her mind cringed at the forcefulness the New Hinata could bring to bear, and at how callous she was, but truth be told Old Hinata enjoyed it. It was one thing to cower in fear at possible opponents, and quite another to dominate them utterly. Power. That was what the clan had attempted to force upon her, and now that she had it...

Hinata tasted blood. She had hit the target so hard, the wooden 'enemy' had burst apart as if hit by lightning, and with the explosion of splinters had come the strangely disembodied "crock" noise of a bone breaking. Hinata looked dispassionately as she gripped the middle finger of her right hand with her left and wrenched it back into place with a second, infinitely more dizzying snap. The blood in her mouth came from where she had bit on her lower lip as she struck the target, and now a small drop fell from her mouth in time with a sigh the likes of which she had never heard herself make before.

Hinata blinked in surprise and felt her cheeks go warm as she realised. It was her first breathy sigh of pleasure. Real pleasure.

* * *

Naruto was in a foul mood, one that went unchecked all throughout breakfast and the explanation of this Shizune girl that had been sent out on an errand a week beforehand. The nature of the errand was never explained, but it could be surmised it dealt with the receipt of money for gambling, or paying off a large debt.

Jiraiya watched, his own mood dampened by the dark cloud that seemed to hang over Naruto's head. Something he had Seen had scared him, or depressed him so much he wasn't even attempting to put on a happy face. Tsunade seemed a little less cheerful than usual too.

Jiraiya mentally sighed, keeping his outward appearance cheery and acting the fool with as much surety as always. It was far too late in his life for him to change the Jiraiya he kept the world at bay with now, anyway... Too old, and too damned foolish to play any part other than the crazy old coot with too much money for booze and whores, and a disgusting past-time that earnt him the money to keep up the facade.

"Ano... Ero-sennin?"

The world seemed to freeze for a moment as Naruto's words cut the ambience of depression like a heated blade through butter. Jiraiya couldn't help but lean forward that extra half-inch, intrigued as to the reason for Naruto's emergence from the shell of ill temper he held about him like a cloak. "Hai?"

"Ero- no, Jiraiya-sama, I had a bad dream last night."

Jiraiya's mouth almost loosened and smacked his jaw into the table. That was it? A bad dream? God forbid a twelve-year-old should have a bad dream! What was it? The Boogey-man? Shinigami come to take him away for some trifling little 'wrong-doing'? Nevertheless, Jiraiya nodded for Naruto to continue.

"I nearly killed Tsunade... I think it was a Vision... but then I dropped down, nearly dead myself... I don't understand why it happened. I just know that it was bad... and would have gotten worse..."

"And this bad dream is why you're in a bad mood today, hm? Maybe it was a Vision of the future coming to pass... have the things preceeding it took place?" Jiraiya cupped his chin between his right forefinger and thumb, narrowing his eyes a little. This was... unexpected.

Naruto shook his head in the negative, and sighed heavily before continuing. "No, no I avoided it... Everytime you look at the future, it changes, I guess... useful for fights, but insane whenever I go to sleep... You heard about what happened for the Chuunin Exams, right?"

"Hai, Naruto. I heard. A strange business, that... You said before you could see two minutes ahead, but why are you seeing farther than that when you sleep? Especially on roofs of all places?"

At this, Naruto looked puzzled beyond belief. "I... Don't know?" the boy said, his eyebrows raising as realisation hit home. "That's... kind of weird, actually. Anyway, it hasn't happened and I don't think it will, now... I just... I was worried because it was so real..."

"Real?" Jiraiya asked, cocking an eyebrow. "As opposed to, what? I thought you saw these visions, echoes, whatever you want to call them, as though they happened to you... I'd say those were pretty real."

Naruto sighed and hung his head. "I guess..."

* * *

"Naruto, the point of this is to take your mind off things."

The blonde Genin glared side-long at his white-haired sensei and huffed. The aged pervert had Naruto standing in the middle of a field on the outskirts of the town, wearing his right sandal, and practising hand-seals for various jutsu. What didn't help was that Jiraiya had invited an audience. Fully a third of the people there were giggling at the young boy who was only wearing one sandal, and the others were getting bored that the two travelling Ninja were just striking various poses, when Jiraiya wasn't corrupting them all by reading passages from his Icha Icha series. Naruto was bright red for more than one reason, that was for sure.

Naruto growled once again as he saw Jiraiya reaching for his travel-pack, where he had stashed the novels, and lost his temper when his sensei ignored the warning.

Naruto flashed his hands through a quick set of seals he had seen and memorised a fair while ago, inhaled, molded the chakra, and exhaled sharply.

Jiraiya was engulfed in a Goukyaku no Jutsu before he even had time to think, much less defend his book.

* * *

The crowd had dispersed shortly after Naruto's pyrokinetic display, and Jiraiya had never looked more foolish. The old man's hair was stained grey with soot, and the edges of his clothes were badly singed. Lying on the floor, as a pile of orange-y black ashes, was Icha Icha Paradise.

"Serves you right, Ero-Sennin."

Jiraiya looked down to his left to see Naruto grinning at him, and swung a fist at the boy. The meaty fist smashed into Naruto's face with almost as much force as Tsunade could muster, and exited in a wreath of smoke with a "bamff" of clone disintegration. Jiraiya looked to his right and found the real Naruto there, grabbing the boy about the scruff of the neck and lifting him up in line with his eyes as one would a bad puppy.

"Well done." was the verbal tirade that left Jiraiya's mouth. Naruto was stunned, and his jaw fell open for emphasis. "Eh?!"

Jiraiya put the boy back on his feet and started brushing himself down. "Yep. Well done. Did you think about what your Chakra was doing, how to mold it, how your finger was missing, anything?"

".. No?"

"Good. You can put your sandal back on. You were more concerned with being made a fool out of and seeing me put in my place than not being able to mold Chakra properly, and you molded it perfectly. I know without testing that you're not a natural Fire-type because of the amount of Chakra you pumped into the fireball to get it to a proper size, but well done all the same. Lets go grab Tsunade and wait for this Shizune girl to come back, then we'll head back to Konoha."

With that, Jiraiya about-faced and walked off, leaving Naruto gawping after the stupidly simple explanation. And all the luggage.

"OI!?!?"

* * *

Haruno Sakura hadn't returned home since the night she had discovered Sasuke's death. She had been hiding in one of the lesser-travelled alleyways that riddled Konoha, and was looking worse for wear. Her pink locks were greasy and dull, and some smaller strands stuck out at odd angles. Her cheeks and eyes were darkened by dirt and grime, made worse by the clear lines that showed the paths her tears had taken down her face. Her fingernails were cracked, and dirt was caught beneath them. All in all, she looked a mess.

And that was exactly what she looked like when Yamanaka Ino found her once-best-friend when she took a shortcut to her home from a particularly crappy "Catch Tora the cat" mission.

* * *

_AN: Well, there we go... a bit anticlimactic but I kind-of have to ease myself into this again... I hope you don't all think too badly of me for it._

_Hopefully, I'll have another chapter for you before this week is out!_

_Ja mata ne!  
_


	25. Chapter 23: Tying it all Together

_AN: I have to say, I'm impressed. From the first time I posted the prologue for Next, I have saved every "Story Alert" email notification I have received from . I have precisely 615 of them in a specially designated folder of my hotmail account (at the time of writing, anyway... I've had more since writing the first two paragraphs. Damn, it's hard to keep track of you all...)._

_I'm afraid to say all the "Favourite Author", "Author Alert" and god-only-knows what other alerts have been deleted, simply to keep things easy to remember... Many apologies._

_I've been reading through my own story again, and I am actually quite surprised at how much detail I forgot I had put into things... It's like knitting a garment half-way, putting it down and coming back a week later to find you've forgotten which line in the pattern you were on... Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of it all very soon._

_(Anyone else who uses OpenOffice noticed that the bottom-most toolbar of the window, just above the Windows Taskbar, says "Insert STD"? That's kind of freaky...)_

_Anyway, we'll progress with the next (hurriedly-written) chapter of Next, and a crazy heads-up to search for new Shikamaru-centric stories. I had an extremely weird urge to write a short about what Shika could do if he wasn't so damned lazy... It involved a Glaive. We'll see if I'm mental enough to write it. Or something else._

_Chapter 23 then!_

_AN v2.0: Now that I've gotten a whole bunch of one-shots and an unintentional two-shot out of the way, I think I can finally start working on Next again. Stupid brain._

_Look them up, if you wish; _Akemi, A Letter to a Rock _and _Tale of a Tormented Heiress _are all available for perusal at your discretion, unless you've already read them. If you have, thanks. I should've been writing Next but... I needed to get them out of my head._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 23: Tying it all together**

**

* * *

**

Kyuubi no Yoko, the Nine-tailed Demon Fox, stalked about his small (for him) cage deep within Naruto's mind-scape. The tear in the paper seal that held the gates of his prison closed was no larger, nor any smaller.

The Bijuu was taking a little time to... procrastinate. He had been forcing a lot of his energies into the seal, and along his Container's chakra pathways to try and elicit a response; preferably healing the damage that made the Container look weak and pathetic in Kyuubi's eyes.

Still, however, no matter how much youki travelled the chakra pathways to that one small injury that refused to heal, it disappeared entirely. The places where damage still remained on his Container's body were the few places the Fox could not seem to direct any of his healing abilities, or that took every ounce of power he put into it and whisked it away to places unknown.

It was... frustrating.

* * *

Hyuuga Hiashi scowled as he read the daily reports. It was late, getting towards ten on the night, and he was still knelt in his study. Running the Clan was... a demanding task, but one that he could manage. One he hoped Hinata would manage, despite her weakness. She showed promise, wounding both Hanabi and Neji as she had, but what the paper in front of him said was a different matter.

His eldest daughter had been training so hard that the allotted budget for training dummies, targets and supplies had to be increased for the first time in five years. The household retainers were having a very hard time keeping the training sand-boxes raked properly as Hinata barely gave them the half-hour needed between practices to 'reset' the sand. It was becoming... troublesome.

Add to that the increase in training accidents the girl seemed to be getting herself in, and treating on her own... It was cause for concern. No Hyuuga Clan Leader should be without some medical techniques, but for one to show interest in following medicine as a profession within the Ninja world was almost unseemly. Hinata should, by rights, be taught as he had been; to be a fighter. Strength, speed, skill and stealth were the key points of that, not _medical knowledge_. She might have to be taken in hand and taught properly.

Maybe...

Hiashi closed his eyes and shook his head. He was loathe to admit it, but perhaps it was time he taught his eldest daughter properly, for once, in something she might excel at. He had been more like his nephew at the time, aloof and harsh, but he had found an outlet for his nervousness that had assisted in conquering that god-awful stutter. He had found the first love of his life, and hadn't ever forgotten.

Perhaps it was time to give Hinata her first love? Or what could help her find it, at any rate.

Hyuuga Hiashi nodded to himself, resolving his path for the following day before finishing his perusal of the reports and retiring for the night.

Hyuuga Hinata would learn something that would help her truly surpass her cousin as the pride of the Hyuuga Clan.

* * *

_Noboyuki Aoi screamed as the thrown kunai stabbed her in the shoulder, the surprisingly heavy weight catching her off guard and spinning her about._

_The girl fell, clutching at her shoulder as she fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Namikaze Minato was there in a moment, knelt at the silver-haired girl's side and doing his best to staunch the small flow of blood._

_Hyuuga Hiashi arrived a heartbeat later, stammering his apologies and trying to help Minato. He had thought Aoi would have dodged, would have leapt aside or simply dropped her shoulder, but he had been wrong._

_That was unforgivable._

_Hiashi watched, horrified as the trickle of blood from Aoi's shoulder started to spurt with the fury of a severed artery, the visible wound becoming infected and festering within the blink of an eye. Aoi's silver hair soaked the blood up like a sponge, turning a horrible dark red and growing sopping wet. Minato just sat there, glaring at Hiashi, and growled out three words._

_Three words that haunted him, and would continue to do so until the end of his life; "It's _YOUR _fault!"_

_Tears fell from Hiashi's eyes as Aoi's corpse, completely drained of blood and bearing the stigmata of rotten flesh, many years old, reached up and began to choke the life from him._

_

* * *

_

Hyuuga Hiashi didn't yell as he awoke with a start. One moment he was sleeping, the next he was awake; It was always that simple.

He had seen too much a long time ago; his dreams held no real fear for him now.

It was dawn, the sky a strange orange as the sun started its rise. He could hear the sounds of someone training hard, and the breaking of wooden targets.

His daughter was awake, and the house had yet to begin its daily routine. Good.

* * *

"Hinata. Cease."

Hyuuga Hinata stopped immediately, her left hand still glowing with chakra and only two inches from striking the training log in front of her that wore, in her mind at least, the smirking and disrespectful face of her sister.

Hinata stepped back, standing straight, and then turned to her father. Hiashi was wearing something Hinata had not seen on him for a long, long time; a training kimono. It was slightly harder-wearing than the normal kimonos he wore, Hinata knew, but why would he be wearing one?

"Ohayo g-gozaimasu, Otousan." Hinata said, her voice cracking with the stutter but still as cold as she had sounded since the battle against Hanabi. Hiashi was... proud of that. Strength.

"Daughter. Come with me, I have something to teach you."

With that, Hyuuga Hiashi simply turned on his heel and walked away from her. Hinata was stunned. Personal training? From her father?! Hinata clamped down upon her surprise and hurriedly caught up with the Clan patriarch.

Maybe she'd done right by kicking Neji in the... No. Maybe she'd just done right by beating Neji in a match.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto enjoyed the feeling of the dawn sunlight on him. It was cooler than usual, true, but an early start was always welcome. It refreshed him, kept him upbeat. So what if Ero-Sennin was being as big a fool as usual since he'd found out Shizune-nee-chan was 'legal' and quite _pretty_, Naruto had had a great time watching the medic-nin beat seven shades of hell out of the older man for even suggesting that she cater to his supposedly medical needs.

Naruto hadn't laughed so hard that early in the morning for a fair while; especially as he'd had two minutes extra of the entertainment than anyone else.

The two Sannin (or should that be Ni-Nin, Naruto wondered), himself and Shizune-nee-chan were walking back to Konoha, waiting until they were far from the gambling town before resorting to Ninja methods of travel; they were all meant to be incognito, after all. Kami knew what bounties were on Jiraiya's head, let alone the gambling debts and bounties on Tsunade's.

Naruto smiled, ignoring the future Echoes of himself who fell over, tripped, said the wrong things and were attacked by one, all, or a combination thereof of his travelling companions, and simply... enjoyed the beginning of the day.

Things were changing, he felt. And maybe, just maybe, for the better?

* * *

Hinata's eyes were wide open as she drank in the sight before her.

How had her father hidden _this _from her and everyone else?

She watched in silence as Hiashi danced about the training dojo she hadn't been in since Hanabi was seven, gasping every now and again as her father jumped, span, or made a move that broke the dance, but flowed nonetheless into one intricate weave.

It was... beautiful.

If this was what he intended to teach her... if this was what he intended to teach her after so many years of thinly-veiled disapproval and ignorance, she'd learn it better than he could teach her and she would break him with it.

Hyuuga Hinata was surprised, but not worried about the feeling of malevolence that she held for her father, nor for the vicious streak that was even now delighting her imagination with the image of her standing over Hiashi with a blade aimed at his throat, demanding his submission.

Hyuuga Hiashi would fall and pay for mistreating his new, firmer daughter. And she would delight in it.

* * *

Hyuuga Hiashi came to a stop, returning to his guard position and then sheathing his weapon.

Way back when, in the mists of time before Konohagakure no Sato had been founded by the Shodai Hokage and Uchiha Madara, the Hyuuga Clan had been a wandering group of ninja. Several times, the wandering clan had been set upon by foolish samurai who had thought to try and exterminate the white-eyed 'devils', no doubt thinking they would be heroes and chosen by the gods themselves should they succeed. The Hyuuga Clan had dissuaded them of that idea firmly.

Many had relied simply on the precursor to the Jyuuken, but on those few occasions when the samurai had attacked whilst on horseback...

Hiashi motioned his daughter to join him, and waited patiently while she stood and collected her own, slightly smaller weapon from the same ornately lacquered box Hiashi had retrieved his own from.

Hinata joined her father, standing exactly eight feet from him, and copied his stance. Hiashi nodded to her, and they began. For the first since Hyuuga Hizashi had surrendered his life in stead of his brother's, the Hyuuga Leader's personal training dojo heard the eerie rasps of a pair of Nagamaki whispering from their scabbards in perfect unison.

* * *

Jiraiya, Toad Hermit and least gifted of the Legendary Sannin, awoke with a start. He looked around hurriedly, fearfully, just in case anyone had noticed; they hadn't. Anything that could worry a Sannin would have to be damned scary, he knew.

It certainly shouldn't be the glares of two teenage boys stood over the dead body of their best friend.

* * *

_Team Pervert had been assigned a milk-run mission, taking a simple scroll that contained information of tithes from Konoha to the Fire Daimyo. Then they had stumbled across a group of rogue ninja who shouldn't have been anywhere inside Fire Country at all._

_The missing-nin, fearing discovery and censure, attacked. Team Pervert hadn't stood much of a chance at all, were it not for their exceptional abilities._

_Jiraiya had attacked the ninja wearing a Rain hitai-ite immediately, sensing his skill and chakra capacity was far in advance of a regular Jounin. Jiraiya had been hard pressed, but had eventually killed the man. Too late to help his students, though... especially the one who had needed his help most._

_Hiashi, Kami bless the boy, hadn't wasted any time in being nervous or being surprised at all, his Byakugan activating without a word or a hand seal, and that bloody frightening blade of his appearing in his hands with the poof of smoke that signalled a summoning from an equipment scroll. His kill-count for the day was three, including the one who he had chased down after the battle without remorse._

_Minato had been luckier, getting only one to fight and kill, but still managing to help Hiashi with his final victim._

_Aoi..._

_Aoi had been targeted by two missing-nin also. Both of them Chuunin level. She had done well, killing one using her brains and quite prodigious brawn, given her study of Tsunade's works._

_And then, without warning, the second Chuunin got a lucky shot that shouldn't have been possible were it not for the supposedly dead ninja on the ground holding Aoi in place._

_The silver-haired girl, the true Prankster Queen of Konohagakure no Sato, smartest kunoichi he had ever seen other than Tsunade, had died surrounded by her friends and teacher with a kunai stuck so deep in her heart she knew it was useless to even try and heal herself, and hadn't bothered. She had held out long enough to croak out a goodbye to her team-mates, and slipped away._

_Hiashi's white battle-kimono had been soaked so thoroughly it might as well have been dyed with blood. It had still been wet when he and Minato had caught the survivor, tied him to a tree, and hacked off his arms one small piece at a time, tying tourniquets progressively higher and higher up the appendages until the enemy died, like Aoi, of blood-loss. With tourniquets helping, that was a damned long time. A lot of screaming, fainting, and reviving with smelling salts and injections of adrenaline from Aoi's personal stash of medicines and more mundane healing items._

_Jiraiya had just... stood there and watched._

_He was as bad, in a way, as Orochimaru. Let the boys torture and kill the bastard who killed a small piece of each of us when Aoi was murdered. Let them exact revenge, take their pound of flesh and allow them to take more in her name. Let the bastard suffer._

_Worse things had happened during the war, but not many, and certainly nowhere near as many that were premeditated with such outright cruelty._

_Such evil._

_

* * *

_

"Ne, Jiraiya-sama, thinking about something?"

Jiraiya blinked, broken out of his revelry by Shizune. She wasn't a bad kid, and it wasn't really _his_ fault he'd forgotten about the young girl Tsunade had taken as an apprentice whilst she had been out on her travels. She'd grown over the last ten years, is all. Quite a lot.

"Eh, ah... Iie, Shizune-chan. Unless you want to give me something to think about, that is?" Jiraiya said, leering pervertedly at the black-haired girl.

"Agh! Hentai-Sannin no baka!"

Thus, balance was restored to the world when Shizune clouted Jiraiya about the head, and he told himself it wasn't for being a pervert... it was for failing Aoi-chan all those years ago.

* * *

_AN: There we are, another chapter done. I know, I know, they're getting shorter steadily but I'm building to a very large one, I think. I'll try, 'tebayo! Hehe._


End file.
